"Life is an occasion...rise to it"

Wow, its been a nice little minute since I've posted a blog entry. Well, as many of you know, I made the decision to join the military. I've been on the road to enlistment for about a month now. Its funny how it went from a thought, to a notion, to the only thing I can see myself accomplishing. It all started with a test, the ASVAB test. The ASVAB test is the test that lets you know what jobs you're best suited for in the military. Took the test, with one days notice, scored five points shy of what i needed to move forward. Now, the old me would have given up at that point, and just paid it and kept moving. Instead, I immediately got home, went to amazon.com and ordered a study booklet. I had 30 days to retest and also detox from my smoking. The smoking was a struggle, I must admit. Y'all know how much I enjoy my Cudi sessions, lol. But I stayed away from the mj, and eventually passed my drug test. I studied as much as I could, then I was ready for the retest. Last week, I took the retest, and surpassed the score I needed. Last thursday I went to MEPS. MEPS is basically where I go to take my physical. MEPS was a crazy experience. We were taken to this hotel by alstate arena to stay the night, we were fed, then basically sent to our room. The actual day of the physical started at 4:00 in the morning. We were out of the hotel by 5:15, and went to the facility. From there we were herded from room to room, and poked, prodded, had our nuts squeezed, told to turn our heads and cough, bent over, and told to piss in a room of 5 other people, at least 3 feet from the stall, then weighed in, and told to do all types of excercises in front of 17 other dudes in nothing but their underwear. After all of that, you would then be informed if you qualified or not. Unfortunately, I didn't qualify. I was 3 percent over the BMI percentage allowed. I was crushed. I was hurt. I was embarrassed. I felt like a failure. Once again, the old me would have just said fuck it. But, nope, I WILL BE A SOLDIER. If for nothing else, because this has truly been a challenge thus far. So basically like my title says..."LIFE IS AN OCCASION...RISE TO IT" and damnit, I'm rising higer than ever.