WEBVTT

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Yeah , I received the ROTC scholarship

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my senior year of high school . And ,

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yeah , I did four years of the program ,

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and the day I graduated college , I

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commissioned as a second lieutenant ,

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so the scholarship covered full tuition .

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Um , I got stipend for books . Also got ,

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like , a 250 to $400 monthly stipend

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just for basic living expenses . Really

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cool thing about an ROTC is that it

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gives you enough structure , uh , where ,

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you know , you can make a big school

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smaller . You have an instant group of

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friends and you have meaning towards

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your your school experience . Um , but

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it's , you know , it's not . It's not

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super rigid . Like I had the life of a

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normal college student . I was able to

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choose whatever major I wanted . So I

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studied history while also taking

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usually wanted to enter OTC specific

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classes coming up in high school .

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For me , being a Marine Corps officer

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was actually not something that I

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always wanted to do . It was really

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like an evolving process as I was going

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through high school and really starting

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to think about where I wanted to go to

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school and most importantly , what I

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wanted to do with my life . Um , after

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college , um , And for me , I was

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looking at my values that I was always

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in sports , and I really cared about

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community service . Um , and I was

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really set on the military . And as I

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was doing more and more research about

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the different branches , uh , to me ,

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the values of the Marine Corps had , as

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far as , like , you know , honor ,

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courage , commitment . Those are the

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obvious ones , but more of like the

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spirit , like the fighting spirit . Um ,

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and just like the warrior mentality ,

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those are something that the other

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branches just really didn't have . Um ,

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so that's why I was drawn to the Marine

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Corps specifically , and I didn't know

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a whole lot about it at the time .

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Definitely took a big leap of faith ,

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But from the second I showed up for

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freshman orientation and all throughout

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my four years of school docs in the

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fleet , um , yeah , my decision was

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only reinforced , like I you know , I

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felt more and more in love with the

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Marine Corps the further along I got .

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And , like I said before , the thing

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that I think really sets the NRCC

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partner apart . As far as like the

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officers that produces the fact that

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you have four years of Marine Corps

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specific experience where you're being

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mentored by a captain , you're being

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mentored by gunnery Sergeant , and you

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have those experiences to draw . And

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before you start your Marine Corps

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career ,