Coming into the program, I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t come from a military family, and in leaving high school I was sure I wanted to study biology but not sure where else I was going to apply myself in college. It wasn’t until I talked with several family friends about a possible career through ROTC that I considered it as an option. It was a stroke of luck that my school of choice (FSU(Go Noles!)) had an ROTC detachment in the branch I preferred and with a fantastic reputation behind it, and I decided to put my name in. At the very start, my expectations were that this was four years of Basic Training, that I’d be balancing academics against a punishing training regimen and a cold and unforgiving group of “soldiers”. I had almost twelve years of Boy Scouts to make a very general basis on what to expect, but I knew that ROTC would be a whole different ball game from what I was used to in the Scouts.
I was apprehensive at first, but when I truly integrated myself into the Wing, all of my initial expectations were shattered. It is true that the training we go through is demanding and very daunting to the average college student, but the notion that ROTC is too difficult, abrasive, or unforgiving could not be anything further from the truth. In my first two years, I wanted to grind through my academics as hard as I could and knock out the hardest classes I could handle, however I sacrificed being able to participate to the fullest extent in the Wing. I was very reserved and tried my best not to get in anyone’s way, opting not to take any volunteer opportunities for events or to reach out at all. When the Spring semester of my sophomore year came around, I realized that many peers in my class was going through the same struggles that I was going through, and that I was not alone in my apprehensions. In that semester in particular, I saw how the Wing acts to build cadets up and make everyone competitive - not among each other - but as officer candidates across all ROTC detachments. I realized how ROTC is far more of a nurturing and learning environment where the aim is not to break cadets down and weed out the weak, but push everyone to reach their limits and exceed them.
In the end, I understand that the program is just the starting point for a military career; I may graduate in May to leave my life at Florida State behind, but it is hardly the end of my learning in life. Over the summer, I spent a ten-week internship at Kirtland AFB and was able to see the lives led by over a dozen officers and just as many enlisted Airmen, and ROTC is accurate in some respects, but far off on others. Thus, my biggest expectation for the Air Force once I commission is that I must be ready to adapt to whatever environment I am put into, and quickly; chances are it will be a unique experience and I may be caught off guard. I intend on following through with my pilot slot and competing at UPT next autumn, which puts me back in the classroom but under a completely new set of circumstances. For this reason, my final expectation is that all of the training and effort that I have invested into my time at ROTC will set me ahead of the curve when I am at UPT, and I will be able to adapt to whatever challenges I am faced with.