Military Youth Camp Days

When I was a teenager I attended a week long military youth camp. There I learned a lot about myself. I learned that I sucked at guiding an airplane bomb run. (I bombed the wrong city. In theory, not practice.) I got to shoot a .22 long. A cartridge got stuck in the loading mechanism, I thought something was wrong so I raised my hand and the instructor came. He just used force to guide the cartridge into where it was supposed to be. I thought the damn thing would explode in my face if I used force. I hit all targets pretty well that day. (Now my eyesight is poor and the result would have been very different.)

A fellow got bullied by some guys when I was in my bed reading. I asked them to stop because I couldn't concentrate, and magically, they did and left the room. I was half expecting a beat down myself, but apparently they did not want to bother the reading-person. I would not call it standing up for my fellow. You see, back then I was a bit of a callous teen and I was actually just bothered by them disrupting my reading.
That same fellow started to follow me around a bit during my week there.

Everyone was asked to lead their "squad" for a day each, when it was my turn to lead, I declined. I hate leading, and I hate responsibility. And I did not know what to do.

I learned I was a great runner, I ran and ate a sandwich at the same time. Our squad was a bit slow, so I ran to the goal to ask if one person reaching the finish line would count, it did not, so I ran back to my squad and ran with them.

It was some of the most fun stuff I've ever done in my life (designed to be fun to lure unsuspecting youths into the military) and I saw a career in the military before me. When I got the papers home, I filled them out and waited. I was declined. Perhaps because of my weight. I was skinny and tall. Or perhaps because of something else. Either way, I did not stress about it. I was sure there would be opportunities in the future.

The future came and went, I worked odd jobs, and never really attempted to join up again. Sometimes I ponder how I would have fared in the military. Probably not well. I'm glad now that I never got into it, due to my mental problems, they would have been dangerous if I were in a military position.

It all did inspire my writing a little.