Monday 30 November 2009

Education

With all of 2 days before my PRTC I have one final update about the past. After this it'll all be updates about what's going on with training and such, with the odd extra if I feel the need.

As I'm sure I've said before, I decided the military was for me quite early on in life. At several times it almost happened sooner than planned. My ultimate (viable) plan was always to go in as an engineering officer. I hadn't decided between RAF and REME, but I wanted to work on aircraft, helicopters specifically.

This meant good GCSEs (which I got), good A-Levels (I'll come to that) and then a degree (lets not go there).

As you can guess from the 'viable' statement earlier, engineering wasn't my favourite dream. I wanted to be a fast jet pilot (of course) at the age of about 8 and, after seeing Britiains first Apaches arrive at Wattisham when I was a cadet, I decided I'd quite like to fly those. Unfortunately I found out I'm pretty short sighted and so I'd never make pilot.

There were also backup plans, I always fancied combat, so infantry or RAF regiment were high on my list, but my mum was dead against me joining up and not earning decent qualifactions (she's a careers advisor, I had no chance). Or there was always joining up as a mechanic if things went pear shape. Which they did.

The closest I got previously was on A-Level results day. I didn't do too well during my AS Levels (except a C in maths) but I'd managed to charm the lead lecturer at one uni and they'd dropped their requirements for me to get in. All I needed was 2 Cs and a D. Should have been fairly easy but instead I walked away with 2 Es and a D instead.

Genuinely gutted with the results I didn't even bother checking with the uni and discussed joining up with my mum and went out to get wasted with everyone that was celebrating. By the time I actually went out I was over my results and had decided to head to the army careers office in the morning to join the REME.

In the morning however, I found out I'd been accepted to my uni even with my bad grades. So I was back to my original plan of officer. I did plan on joining the TA whilst at uni but decided not to as I wouldn't have been able to go to Iraq or Afghanistan whilst at uni anyway.

Uni for me was not really what I wanted. Sure, the parties were good, I met some of the most amazing people and had some great times. I also had an amazing house for my second and third year and some pretty special housemates. I do miss the 'happy house'. Most importantly, I met Em whilst I was at uni (though really I met her back home) and I've been in a very happy relationship since.

The main problem for me was the sheer amount of spare time I had to do my own thing and sort myself out. It was too irregular to fill it with paid work and too much to enjoy fully. Somewhere along the line I got fed up of doing uni work in that time and found I enjoyed having a workout program instead.

It was around about the time I started playing ice hockey. Having a level of fitness and skill to work at easier to get into than advanced maths and fluid dynamics (can't imagine why). Eventually I found I'd much rather train than do anything else.

In addition to the loss of enthusiasm over my course, lack of money was starting to get to me. I was getting more and more in debt and was starting to struggle with it. I figured what I needed was to work rather than study, even just for a year out. I've always been more of a worker than anything else so I applyed for a placement year, hoping to earn some money and experiance in the industry.

After the interview process and everything was over nothing really improved, after waiting a while and hearing nothing I decided to talk to someone at uni over my concerns and bought up the RAF. Being ex services, my tutor suggested I just go for it as it would be more benificial for someone like me and after talking to my parents I began the joining process.

And that's where my blog began. So even if it's not in the order it should be, the story that leads up to where I am now is all here, more or less. I'm sure there are gaps but I can live with that. I can always answer any questions you might have.

This week is my Pre Recruit Training Course at RAF Halton so I shall blog about that over the weekend.