I remember my freshman year entering JROTC with a sense of a dream because I wanted to join the military, I was also very scared as to what I was getting myself into, the reason being because there you have to show leadership to stand out. And I was and still kind of am a shy person. My first year I remember I sat at the very front where I reunited with a longtime friend I had since kindergarten named many. I was happy to at least know someone. I remember the person who gave me the most motivation to learn and teach my squad (because I was a squad leader) was John Lozano, he had so much energy and was really motivated. I also used to sit by a guy named Herbert, little did I know four years later we would be inseparable. This all started when during the summer I decided to go to the army camp JCLC, Herbert was the only person in the company that I knew, so we bunked together and we started …show more content…
And even though I hated waking up at 3 in the morning (we were the only ones awake at that time) because we were Bravo company it was a great experience I will never forget, from the rappelling tower to the obstacle course every minute of JCLC felt like freedom because I was leaving my daily life schedule behind. Another great memory of JROTC was Raiders, it helped me stay motivated to be fit and I met a lot of great people, I remember Lozano almost killing everybody by making us run stairs at a pace no one could keep up, but that’s the point of Raiders to push yourself beyond your limit. Another memory I have is when I did the cadence for the battalion at the parade, I had gotten out of my safe shell from which I was shy and I started to lead a whole battalion and it felt great, even my dad was proud of me at the moment. I pretty much lived every experience while being in the program, I also did Color Guard and Armed Drill