this could take a while

Alright, So my recruiter is back from his emergency leave. First thing he said, "Your waiver should be back by now." and silly me I fell for that line again. He had called around 10 and said if I hadn't heard back from him by 3:30 to call back, and if his phone wasn't working to call this other recruiter. So I waited till 4 called, bo answer, called the other recruiter not long after that. I told him the situation(it's been 3 weeks since MEPS and was waiting to hear back about the waiver) and he says, "Waivers usually take months to get even up to a year." So I have 3 different stories 1. Recruiter saying, "Any week now and we'll know. It'll be soon. 2. Other recruiter, "It'll take months to a year." and 3. Retired recruiter," It should only take 2 weeks, not this long." So I'm getting frustrated with the conflicting reports and my recruiters lack of communication with me. Called him today and was like, "Ok so it's at Great Lakes and you said that's where they make the final decision, so really when should we be hearing something." He said that he's known them to take up to 6 months. In my head I was like finally! A different and probably more realistic answer!

I'm sure everyone who waits for a waiver goes through this frustration. I would be ok, if only my recruiter would be open with me and communicate. You know check in every once in a while, keep me posted, actually answer the phone when I call (which isn't a whole heck of a lot). I've joked around about having a one-sided relationship with his voicemail.

So that's where I am at the moment...and for the past couple posts. I'll report back when I hear something (keeping fingers crossed for a positive response). Until then I'll just being going to class, and at this rate looks like I'll be going to school next semester...joy. I'll be trying to keep positive, but if you remember, mention me in your prayers!
Hooyah!

No news still

Still waiting for the waiver, so not much I can do at the moment. Plus my recruiter is on emergency leave, the office is extremely short staffed. The other day when I went in, there was only 1 petty officer. So I'm a tad concerned that I might be overlooked. Hopefully I'll know something soon. I'm going to start memorizing the 11 General Orders of a Sentry in the meantime. Also I'm starting a couple classes at the local college while waiting. So yeah, that's all I got right now.


Hooyah!

Could be good sign

Hey Guys,

So called the recruiter today to check up on the status of my medical waiver. It's been a week since MEPS and supposedly I should have known something, but nothing yet. On the positive side though, or at least I was told it's a good sign, my medical stuff was sent to Great Lakes. Recruiter man said that it's a good sign that they're taking time with it, he said that they wouldn't be spending so much time on me if they weren't planning to put me through. So that's my positive thought for the day. Tomorrow is sign up for a couple more college classes so keep me busy.

Thinking positive
Hooyah!


This is the Nike of Samothrace, my favorite piece of art, and she's the the Greek goddess of victory.

Errrr so anxious!
Stupid "Hurry up and Wait" I'm so anxious to hear if my medical waiver is approved or not. I want to be in the Navy soooo bad and I can't think of anything else I'd rather do. It's such a good match for me. I don't know why I'm always feeling so down in the mouth when all the recruiters and some of my military friends are so positive that I'll get it. I just can't help feeling like I'll be denied and the whole Navy thing will be over. I've never been so aware of my scoliosis as I am now, and it has me second guessing myself. Not gonna lie, kinda sucks to just wait to hear your fate. The whole trying to stay positive is coming in waves. So yeah, just a little on edge.


Hooyah!

Ronald Reagan Music video

OMG love this video!!! I'm pretty sure if you press play the site will tell you that you that you'll have to watch it on youtube, but I highly suggest watching it.



Hooyah!

My Day at MEPS

Finally! Made it to and through MEPS...well at least part of it. Soooo, went to my recruiter office at 4:30 waited around for a couple hours till one of the petty officers drove to the hotel. Got stuck in Atlanta traffic, talked about police, and what I should expect that night. I don't know about other MEPS stations but at the Atlanta MEPS you get to stay at a nice Double Tree Inn. Checking in consisted of going to the basement of the hotel, which sounded sketchy, and check in with a lady that the recruiter said sounded mean but was quite nice...don't know where he got the nice part. I had to sign in and show my ID to the lady as she explained all the rules to me. I checked into the room, met my roommate and we went down and got dinner. The buffet was really simple, there was bread, rice, beans, some kind of fish, lasagne, fried chicken, and different cakes. It was pretty good. There we talked about rates that we were hoping to get. Some guys overheard us and they started talking about linguistic rates and a coule others like nukes and intelligence. There was a meeting at 10pm in the MEPS check in area and it was really nice. Leather recliner chairs, a huge HD tv, and we all waited for the desk lady to explain all the rules again. My roommate was a little crazy, inappropriate, clingy, and didn't go to sleep that night and kept me up till 2:30.

Alarm cloack went off at 4am. Breakfast till 4:30 and on the bus at 5am. It wasn't too bad functioning that early in the morning. We were off to Ft. Gillem and we were split up into two groups. One group were those who were shipping out and us who were MEPing. First thing we did was watching a slide show that explained the rules of MEPS, then we checked in aka got labeled, and started the medical portion of MEPS. Blood Pressure, Eye Exam, Breathalizer, Hearing test, taking blood, signing all those medical questionaires and privacy documents was normal but took forever. I will say the head nurse was quite umm stern would be an understatement. On her defense some of the guys were extremely loud and annoying. I was interviewed by a elderly doctor about my medical history. He was fun, kept asking me questions about the history of the navy and the barbary pirates. Quite interesting. Then off for the infamous pee in a cup test...that was a fun time. The longest part was the physical. Weight, Height and then the stretches. Nothing was too difficult and the duck walk was hilarious. The women administering the test made some of the girls do the excercises a few times extra because they weren't doing them right. Then the worst part for me was the checking if I was a girl part. The actual physical was basic, what made it aweful was the doctor. She was apparently in a foul mood. She commented on every little thing. The little acne on my shoulder she fussed over, she said I ate too much chocolate (which I avoid thank you) and one tooth was crooked. Very unpleasent and harsh, but I made it through.

With all that over we were finally done. The day had started at 5:40 and those of us who were phys only the day was done just after 12pm. I called the recruiter to come pick me up at 12:30 and was picked up at 4:30...so that was fun. Over all MEPS was not too bad, just lots of waiting. Most of the employees were nice enough, but I will remember the Angry Check-in at the Hotel Lady, Angry Check-in at MEPS Lady , and Angry Nurse Lady. So yeah that was an overview of my day at MEPS.

Hooyah!

Updates soon to come

Hey everyone.

I just want to thank all the lovely ladies (and Chief Underwood) who are on the Women Redefined page on Facebook. That page has been so helpful through this long process. MEPS was a long...it shouldn't have been since I was going for the physical only, but long story short my recruiter was 4 and a half hours late in picking me up. The process wasn't bad at all but man you are exhausted afterwards. I'm aiming for tomorrow afternoon to putting up my MEPS experience, and like everyone else I have roommate stories as well as angry nurse stories as well. So I'm going to go pass out now

Hooyah!

ratings ratings ratings

Still doing good after finding out my medical waiver was approved. Getting a little anxious about MEPS, but I'm trying to remind myself they still said yes and they just want to confirm that my xrays are my back...but still there's a little nervousness that they'll turn me down. After talking to recruiter man I won't be able to pick a rating after the physical. For some odd reason I have to wait for the begining of Aug. Not exactly sure why, but I think I'll be on a high for two weeks if they Navy lets me through. Now I'm just researching the heck out of ratings. At first I started out aiming for MC (Mass Communications). I've added to that list AG (Aerographer's Mate) and IS (Intelligence Specialist). I think in order I'd go AG, IS, and MC or IS then AG. IS would be exciting, stimulating, and secretive...lots have fun. AG would be easy breezy and fun. MC lots of taking pics and being creative. So I think those are my picks. Recruiter man is still pushing me towards nukes. I'm still thinking about it. Positives are really good money, prestige, really good money, you get promoted quickly, and your the Navy's golden child. Negatives it's extremely stressful, long hours (even for the navy) they never the the sun...or people, and it's brainiacs. I'm smart but I want to do something fun, not som much chemistry heavy like nukes.

So that's where I am right now...counting down the days to MEPS then getting my rating and on my way to RTC and graduation. Here's to being a future sailor!

Hooyah!

Getting ready for MEPS

So getting a little nervous about going to MEPS. I'm uber excited about finally getting my medical waiver. When I was talking to my recruiter about going to MEPs he said that I would be going down for the Physical portion so that the doctors could make sure that my back matches the x-rays and doctor's note. He said that it was to make sure the doctor wasn't lying. That seemed a little odd to me, and I guess that's making me a little nervous. I'm confident that I can pass the physical but I will have trouble touching my toes. I know that in order to join the navy you will have to touch your toes in bootcamp in order to graduate. What's making me anxious is I have scoliosis and that does hinder me a little bit, but the real reason I can't touch right now is my leg muscles are so tight. I'm doing yoga and stretching and hopefully I'll get close. I just don't want the meps doctor to turn me away after I've gone this far and worked so hard in getting this waiver approved. So that's where I am right now. Now I just have to wait for Monday to head down and Tuesday will decide my fate....eeek


Hooyah!

Medical Waiver

Hey Guys

Well after a stressful week I went to the beach for the weekend to get some sun and relax. It was good to see my family and as always good to sea the ocean. I hadn't been to the beach during tourist season in a while and it was still pretty busy despite all those who canceled due to the threat of oil. The oil right now is 30+ miles from Panama City right now. Anyway I got back Monday evening and was planning to see my recruiter on Tuesday since I was supposed to hear from him Friday and I didn't. So went in yesterday to find out that his phone had died and he was using another recruiters phone. He also let me know that MEPS was having difficulty opening my X-rays from the disc I gave them (the doc didn't give me a hard copy). So he told me that he should know something on Thursday.

So I wasn't expecting to hear anything till tomorrow, but I just got a call from PO Klien aka recruiter man. He asked me if I still wanted to join the Navy...yes, and he says that MEPs has not approved my medical waiver. It was his stupid idea of a trick. My medical waiver has passed!!! Finally and thank God for that. Their one condition was that when I go to MEPS I am only going for the physical so they can make sure that the doctor didn't lie or anything like that. So I've made it through one more hurdle. Now on to the next. As of right now I am scheduled to go to MEPS on Tuesday. I'm excited and I hope they will take me. Keeping the fingers crossed! I'll be sure to report back soon.

Hooyah!

Still waiting...

Hey guys, So nothing new to report. I'm still waiting to see if my medical waiver is going through. I'm headed to the beach tomorrow morning to relax a little bit, and hopefully I'll hear from my recruiter when I get back. I've been doing a little research on a few ratings that I would like to go into. I'd like to hear from you guys on what you're interested in.

Hooyah!

Another "by the end of the week"

Well I was supposed to find out if I got my medical waiver today, and guess what? As the title says I'll find out by the end of the week. That seems to be my recruiter's favorite saying. I was originally supposed to know some thing last Thursday, which turned into Friday, which turned into Monday, and now by the end of the week. I've heard this phrase every week for the past 2 months. So I'm aggrivated, but I'm trying to take this time to be positive, learn the sailor's creed and get into shape. Here's to knowing something by the end of the week.

Hooyah!

Waiting...

So I talked to my recruiter which is always an enlightening experience....or not, and I should know if my waiver got approved by upper command of the Navy. I was supposed to find out Friday but they were backed up. So yeah I will hopefully hear something Monday afternoon. My recruiter says he's 99.8% sure that I'll get it. Here's hoping. If that hapens then my next challenge is being able to touch my toes (hamstrings are uber tight)and getting my mile and a half down to 15 minutes. Well will see what the Navy says Monday....nervous

Hooyah!

Catching up to the Present

Alright so I started the process of joining the Navy back at the end of May. I had been working at the Georgia Aquarium for the past 4 years and had come to the end of my rope in that field. So with the ending of that job and some major events in my personal life, it was time for some changes in my life. The military had always been in the back of my head but with some prodding from my family I seriously looked into it. After researching all of the branches I felt that the Navy was exactly what I needed and was looking for. So down I went to the local recruiter, and I was so nervous. I just went in for some information about the Navy and before I knew it I was taking the practice ASVAB and had the real test scheduled for the following week. I was a little overwhelmed but excited. After I got home I immersed myself in whatever I could find about joining the Navy.

When it came time to take the ASVAB I was anxious because I'm not really all that great at electronics, mechanics, and pretty much everything save the reading. I was just hoping to get and 80 something. Afterwards drove my score up to my recruiter and when they opened it, their jaws dropped. I had made a 93 (I didn't know if this was good or bad...though I was leaning towards good). When my recruiter got the score he instantly started puching me towards Nukes. I was just excited that I had done well. So now that I know that pretty much all the rates were open to me I learned about all the ratings to see which I would enjoy. When the time comes I'm hoping for either AG (Aerographer's Mate) or MC (Mass Communications). We will see

Now trying to get to MEPS has been quite a journey. So I have a medically disqualifying condition and if you have any experience trying to get a medical waiver, this is where the groaning starts. So yeah, I have scoliosis, which is a curvature of the spine. It's not bad but man the hoops you have to jump through. First of all my recruiter though nice is flakey. I was supposed to go to MEPS at the begining of June. Then I needed I note from my doctor just to say I'd be ok in the military. So MEPS got bumped back to June 1st. I headed down to the recruiting office the day before ready to go, and my guy wasn't even there. I had to wait an hour before he showed up and when he got there, wouldn't you know I'm not going to MEPS on the 1st because my doctor's note took a day longer than expected. So recruiter man tells me he'll run my paper work down to MEPS personally and call me when he hears something. 8:30 the next morning he calls me and was asking if I'd like to turn my paper work in for a waiver or would I like to just go to MEPS and not tell them I have scoliosis. I really couldn't believe he asked that. Scoliosis isn't really something you can hide and I told him that.

So no here I am waiting to hear back about my waiver. It has been approved by the MEPS doctors and the Navy doctors. Now I'm just waiting for upper command to sign off on it. If I get it then barring something going wrong in the physical then I should be well on my way to becoming a United Stated Saior. So keeping my fingers crossed. I'm about to call recruiter man to see if my waiver has been approved...and hopefully I'll be going to MEPS next week.

So we're all caught up.

Hooyah!

Anchors Aweigh?

Ahoy everyone!

So I'm really bad at the whole blogging scene, but I wanted to write down my experience in trying to join the Navy and hopefully on through bootcamp, A school and deployment. I created this blog so I can have an outlet for what's going on, as well as a place for family and friends to see what I'm up too. Also my experiences may prove to be beneficial to others who are going through similar experiences or who are just curious. I will try my best to share what's going on, any news and challenges.


Hooyah!