🚵 Ride On! 🚵

Last Friday I swore in at MEPS. I accepted a 6 year contract for the AECF (Advanced Electronics and Computing Field) rating. I have been taking care of some things so I can spend the last month of my time as a civillian spending time with people, getting in better shape, and doing my first solo bike camping trip. Moving on I put in a Military Leave of Absence to my job and have one more week left until I am no longer on the schedule. I will probably pick up a few shifts to help out and spend some time with all of my co-workers who I am definitley going to miss. I am very greatful for the position I was given by my bosses and I will miss them and my coworkers, as well as many of the customers and the ability to get them out on the road riding their bike. I enjoyed being a bike mechanic and since I have put in military leave, I have the option to go back to it after my six years serving the country is over. I am looking forward to keeping in contact with many of my coworkers and seeing their growth from afar in the next six years. ...

Today was my first of two days at MEPS (Military Enlistment Processing Station), and it was an interesting experience. I am writing this recap at around 7PM, 3 hours after getting back home from MEPS. I got a small taste of what it was like to be in the military while doing some testing there today, and I have a feeling I will get more of a taste tomorrow as I will be there for around 12 hours. The process of testing today took me about 2 hours but it was a bit nerve wrecking and hectic. I know I will be getting some great sleep tonight, which is nice because I will need to be up early tomorrow. The following is a run down of how the process went and how I will prepare for my bigger day tomorrow. ...

I have two more days ahead of me before I head to MEPS in order to verify my PiCAT (Online ASVAB), get checked out by the doctors, and if all goes smoothly, enlist for the Navy as a Cyber Warfare Technician or IT. As the day approaches the reality of the situation becomes more present in my daily life. I am in my mid 30’s, working as a bicycle mechanic for the last decade. I was in a long-term relationship, nearly 10 years, that just ended and I am feeling like I need to take on some new challenges to begin this new chapter in my life. Since I am older and probably a lot more mature than most of the people coming to MEPS as hopefully recruits I feel a bit more prepared for this event, which makes some of the advice I read online not targeted toward me as it is mostly telling people to expect to have to take orders and be bored while waiting for things to happen. ...