Shayden T...
M.C. Perry High School
The military has made a very different life for me. My dad was a recruiter for 6 years. As a recruiter, he was always on duty. Since he was a single dad, he had to take me with at 3:00 a.m. when he took Marines to MEPS. He also had late nights in his office working-some nights until 9:00 p.m. I had to be with him because I couldn't stay at home alone. Then we moved to Hawaii, and he wasn't a recruiter anymore so we didn't have to be out all the time. The only problem with living in Hawaii was the distance from our family. I flew back to the states all the time as an unaccompanied minor, which means I flew by myself. These flights came to a total of 9 hours, and as a 10-year-old, being on a plane that long was not fun. But now when I look back, I realize I have had a lot of cool experiences. I've lived in Texas, North Carolina, Hawaii, and now I live in Japan. I've been to all the states on the southern coast and some others scattered around. I like food a lot so moving to Japan was pretty cool. I didn't really like sushi until I got here, and the ramen is really good. While the military may have many obstacles, at the end of the day I get to experience things that a lot of people never will.