I joined the Navy to get away from a small town.
You grow up knowing nothing but fifteen hundred people… (laugh)
I knew I always wanted to join the Navy.
I knew I always wanted to do something bigger than me.
It’s just, you can’t beat the experience at all.
I went to a junior college right after high school,
and I pretty much wasted my parent's money for two years.
I woke up one day and I was just like,
‘I’m better than this. What am I doing with my life?’
Worked three jobs and still had no money (laugh) and I just wanted to leave.
I wanted to get out, I wanted to see the world and grow up.
When you’re eighteen years old,
you’re expected to know what you want to do for the rest of your life.
I don’t agree with that. I went to college, I wasn’t happy.
I went and talked to a recruiter.
Two months later, I left for boot camp.
I didn’t want to look back and be forty years old and say,
‘I wish I would have joined the military.'
Now, I, I actually think about my future
and think about, like, how to get there.
And when I graduated boot camp,
was when I really felt that my mom was proud of me.
I already see a huge change. My family does.
Uh, nobody in my family was in the military. But they appreciate it.
They’re very happy about it. (laugh)
I like to talk to, uh, the young ladies, especially the ones
who are new to the Navy because you’ve got to stand up for yourself.
To carry yourself with the utmost respect,
‘cause the way that you respect yourself is the way you’ll be respected
Really one word, and that’s ownership.
You have to own every piece of what makes a sailor.
Setting goals and actually exceeding them.
Not falling into that whole stereotype or the perception that they see us as females.
Yea, (laugh) hold your own, go to the gym, pick it up.(laugh)
I definitely encourage all my young sailors to come talk to me.
I’ll give ‘em the, the truth, and it might not always be pretty, but it’s the truth.
There isn’t just one person that you can look up to.
There isn’t one person that you can talk to.
With the Mentorship Programs allows you to have as many people
as you want to help you be successful in your career.
It’s easier to talk to them.
They’re like, ‘Hey, I’ve been through it too, so you’re not alone.
You know, you’re going through the same thing we were going through when we first got here.'
I’ve gotten females in my rate that were
straight out of A School to where, now they’re my rank.
You know, I got them as little bitty airmen,
and now they’re second classes with me
You set the bar. You get to set the standard.
The transformation that I see in these young ladies is just awesome.
Within six months it is night and day.
And their, their strength, their intestinal fortitude
and their ability to get something done.
My multi-tasking skills are out of control,
I can handle like eighty things at once
that I never would have been able to do before
I really feel that the Navy has given me that little push for me
to become more of a woman, and, um, an adult.
It’s definitely made me a stronger person.
I can deal with a lot. A lot more
A lot of stress that I wouldn’t have been able to deal with before.
I would have been like ‘Fine. I give up.
You’re right. You’re right.’ It just motivates you.
OK, you don’t think I can do it? Watch this.
I think what we’re, we’re proving is that we are capable,
um, to do whatever’s set out in front of us.
Women that are CO’s of ships.
You see women that are, you know, Admirals.
We are taking leadership roles now.
Women, uh, being allowed to be on the front line
in combat was the greatest thing, um, in my Navy career…seeing it.
We’re on the front line, with men, fighting for our country.
We’re warriors now.
If you’re a woman, and you’re in uniform you get both.
I get to be pretty and strong and you can see all of that when you look at me.
We’re all females in there, and we’ve all come up into the ranks
and done what we needed to do, and kicked butt and take names.
If any other high school girl walked up to me right now
and says ‘I wanna join the military’, I’d tell them to join.
It’s an experience that no one else can give you.
I have friends on ship that are now my sisters for life.
You’re gonna get to see places you’ve never seen,
do jobs you’ve never thought that you would do.
Have experiences that no other person that doesn’t join the military is gonna have.
And you need to embrace those.
For someone that’s trying to join the Navy that’s young,
I would tell her that I used to be scared,
and I used to be, like, what if, what if I don’t like it or what if I fail.
But, that she can do it.