Graduation Day. I survived. I made it. I'm a Marine. I am not going home a failure. My driving force in this man made hell hole has been to prove not only to myself but to everyone who said I couldn't do this that they were wrong! I have friends back home who talk about doing things and never do. They are good people, but when I look down the road I see a time when they will sit at a bar and say " I think I could have been this or done that.. I think.." I didn't want to wonder, I wanted to know. No mater what happens from this moment on, I know that I can and will make it through the hard times. For all intents and purposes, I am 6'2 and bulletproof. Fear isn't my enemy anymore.
Thirteen weeks ago, I wondered what the hell I was thinking. Now I wonder why I waited so long. When I got here I weighed 223 pounds. Today I weigh 172 pounds. I still have a black eye I got during the Crucible. My grandfather asked me if I went to boot camp or a concentration camp when he saw me.
There are a lot of things I want to do now. I want a beer. I want a dip. I want to go home and sleep in a bed without 80 other guys in the room. I'm excited. I can't sit still.
On the drive out the gate of Parris Island in broad daylight, I look back and realize how different it looks now. The night I got here it looked like the gates of hell, now it looks similar to the entrance to UMass the last time I saw it. It is a black dot on the map that is the journey of my life... just a black dot... well maybe it's a BIG black dot. I'm going home, thank God almighty, I'm going home.
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