Day Fifty-one - The trooper

My first attempt at ninth grade ended just as I pretty much expected it to end - with almost zero effort put in, by the end of the school year the only doubt in my mind was just how bad I'd fail, and fail bad I did. But I cared not, I'd do it next year. Or so I thought.

That summer was spent visiting S's a lot - this was the time period when me, S and N - who was also very frequently there - started to coalesce and strengthen our budding friendship. We spent countless hours basically just watching and rewatching the same two movies : Stanley Kubrick's 'Full Metal Jacket', which we pretty much knew every line by heart, and the first 'Back to the future' flick. It's a weird thing to think about now, especially because as an adult now I could never do it, but we never ever felt bored of watching those movies over and over again. I've tried to explain this to a few people before, and always got a funny look in return. But other than the movies, there would always be lots of conversations about comics and metal - I'd almost always have fresh batches of tapes for us to listen to, and an occasional CD here and there. 

As summer moved quickly on, I had to make decisions about what I wanted to do. I immediately enrolled in school again, but as I was getting older, I had to attend night-school. I initially started going to the same school where I attempted my first go at ninth grade, then after a few days requested and got a transfer to the school where I went for two years of seventh grade. Very early on I knew things wouldn't work out at all - and it was here that I'd meet a kid - his name is lost to time now - that would, though unwittingly and I suspect he never knew, send me down a path towards something that I have long held as one of biggest regrest of my lifes. 

It goes like this : one day during recess we were having a conversation, and he mentioned that he knew this guy, maybe a bit older than us - I was seventeen at the time - and that guy had joined the Air Force. Apparently, after like a month of basic training, he was mostly leading a Beetle Bailey kind of military life - pretty much not doing anything at all and getting paid for it. I daresay that in that same week I went to the Air Force recruitment base and asked around to see what was needed for me to join. They required a few documents I did not have, but shortly after I was back there, this time to apply. Soon, I got called to do some boring psychometric tests for a few days, maybe even some sort of physical tests - though I cannot guarantee that. I think we had to take them, but I'm not so sure now.

I passed all tests witth flying colours, made the first major mistake of my military career, and soon after I was starting my basic training. And that was twenty-nine years ago, to the very day.