AIR FORCE!

One day I randomly got a phone call from my Air Force recruiter saying they are having another board and am I still interested? I'm like ummmmm yes. I didn't know what that meant, because I was told I had a number, which made me think there was a ranked list and they would just pull people off of it as spots became available. but if that was the case, why would they need a board meeting? So I was just as information-less as before.

Then a couple of weeks later someone I had never heard from and have never since heard from left me a voice mail saying "The Air Force is prepared to offer you a scholarship". So I jumped on that one.

And then it was official! I was offered the HPSP scholarship! :-D

So happiness ensued. I went and signed some papers saying i still have never been arrested, still have not done any illegal drugs, and have not gotten any tattoos or been hospitalized for any deadly disease since last time I signed papers saying such. Then I got fingerprinted...in Applebees...and my stuff was sent off to the FBI so they could do a background check and make sure I haven't done anything bad ever. I haven't.

My recruiter told me that I should think of a cool/interesting place to get commissioned and he'd make it happen. Cool beans. After much thought and idea tossing out from myself and others, I decided to commission at Federal Hall, in Manhattan, where George Washington was inaugurated. It was gonna be cool

Unfortunately due to the hurricane, things got messed up, schedules got flipped around, and the powers that be decided everyone had to get commissioned by the end of the week. So I got a phone call on a Monday and my recruiter goes "Hey, wanna commission by Friday?" and I'm like, "I'm sorry, what?"
So We ended up pushing it back to the following Monday because it was not going to work getting my grandparents there on Friday.

So This past weekend I went to Boston-ish to visit some friends, and then sped back to NY to get to the office (short notice = couldn't finish the necessary official things that needed to be done to get Federal Hall) to commission.

Soooo yesterday, I was sworn in as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Air Force. Wahoo!
By a Navy officer. ha.
It was funny, because they didn't have any 2Lt bars to pin on me. My recruiter searched far and wide and made lots of phone calls but nobody had anything but 1Lt bars. So I got pinned silver bars instead of the gold "butter bars" as they call them, and we just pretended they were gold. ALSO, funnily, the certificate they printed out for me said 1st Lieutenant as well. Accidentally, again. Apparently someone somewhere thinks I should really be a 1st Lt. I can't say I would mind the upgrade.

And then we had ice cream cake at the office, and then we went out to dinner and stuffed ourselves further.

It's incredibly strange to me what is happening here. I have been in the AF for just over one day. I have literally no idea what I am doing. I don't even know how to salute. It was a highly entertaining little episode when my recruiter saluted me, and then had to teach me how to salute him back...and I'm supposedly "above" him. I outrank people who have been doing their jobs expertly for almost as long as I've been alive, in some cases. And I'm clueless.  It's very weird and despite the higher rank, quite humbling, actually. Like...it really is an honor to lead people who have spent their whole lives serving their country, especially when I compare what they've done to how green I am at this whole thing. I have a lot of respect for people who can give respect to and take orders from a person they know is relatively clueless. It kind of drives me to be better at whatever I'm doing, so that I'm actually coming closer to deserving the position. Probably one of the worst things I could do is get a false sense of superiority.

Except in one scenario.
My little brother is in the Army ROTC. On the occasion that both he and I are in uniform, he is technically supposed to salute me. And say "good morning ma'am" if we walk past each other. I cannot WAIT to pull rank on my brother.

But everyone else I still feel like I should be saluting them rather than vice versa.


So the plan from here is...finish the year of school. This summer I will head down to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, for a month of Commissioned Officer Training. Yep. 4 weeks in Alabama in July. Not looking forward to that.
I did survive in the desert of Africa.
But deserts are dry. Alabama is probably humid.
I'll get over it.
Right now all I am is excited and I can't wait to go get my uniform(s) and I am wasting(?) a lot of time on the internet trying to learn all the random tidbits I can via blogs and what not, about COT and the air Force and HPSP.