Being at Montgomery College gives people
the chance to meet others from all sorts
of backgrounds doing that can give
insight to many things.
MC has a student veteran population and
getting to know some of them will most
likely open your eyes to other
perspectives. We interviewed six student
veterans for a program called enlisted
to enrolled. If you're watching this on
youtube you'll find the link to that in
the description below. In this video
you're going to see an expanded version
of an interview with just one of those
veterans that's coming up next.
[Music]
I think for me my biggest reason I
enlisted is because I wanted to improve
myself in various different ways I
enlisted in the Marine Corps because I
felt as those the most physically
demanding and would hold me to the
highest standards based off of what I'd
seen beforehand and I think that held
true for what I was going for
as far as enlisting I think that it was
a very good choice for me to improve
myself my first time in boot camp it was
definitely a huge shock being from
Wisconsin going to California the heat
was definitely the first thing I noticed
and then it was just very chaotic and
hard to get used to being wrong at every
single thing I did for a long time but
that grew on me at some point where I
was able to function and be like okay
even though I'm wrong how do I proceed
from here and after I get to my
schoolhouse that really helped me work
at learning my job which also translates
to me being in college I'm much better
at seeing what I'm doing wrong and then
processing through it and figuring out
other remedy it a lot of the friends
that I made and the service are still
really close to me even though they are
and so many different places in the
world during now I got friends in Korea
and Japan friends that went back home to
Tennessee friends that are in California
one of the hardest things is making such
close friends and then having them go to
opposite sides of the earth and not
knowing whether or not you're gonna see
them again whether it be just because
you're your paths just don't cross again
my job was combat camera I was a
photographer in the Marine Corps even
though most of the time I was doing like
promotion photos and command portraits
and stuff really neat being able to take
pictures and then later on find my
pictures in random places published and
I didn't even know about it even though
I was a combat camera
I wasn't stationed in a place where I
was able to deploy so is a really
interesting having to see my job field
operate a little bit differently than
how I had anticipated it or how I was
exactly trained to do it there's so many
times where when I was in I was like man
I hate so much about this I hate the
hours I hate having to work so hard
I hate never knowing whether or not I'm
doing my job right you really do learn
to embrace this up leaving the service
was definitely something that wasn't
easy for me going into the Marine Corps
I envisioned myself as a lifer and for
various reasons it didn't pan out that
way and I think for me it was a little
bit hard because I had to find what my
goal was after getting out it took me a
while to figure out what my goal was now
that I haven't figured out that's why
I'm back in college it was really hard
for me at first and I still think it's a
little difficult for me even now I find
myself getting frustrated sometimes at
the lack of effort that I see from some
of the students who aren't taking it
seriously but I also feel that they
haven't had the same life experience as
I have so they don't necessarily know
the importance of the college education
my expectations honestly when I first
started college was just to come in do
my classes go home and not really try
and talk to a lot of the college
students I definitely find it much
easier to communicate with the student
veterans here on campus it's a lot more
comfortable of an atmosphere knowing
that they've experienced a lot of the
same things that I have and I think it
helps that I can be comfortable talk
about a lot of the things that even
though aren't the biggest part of who I
am are a huge part of who I am today
I miss the Marine Corps a lot it was
one of the most important times of my
life for making me who I am today and I
I definitely miss the people and the
atmosphere
I'm in college studying for an English
major I plan on writing books at some
point in the future I figure English
major is the most conducive towards my
plans I really don't care too much what
work I have to do to support that
because you know that's that's what my
goal is and I'll I'll make it work
however however I need to