Jecca says:
So, today is day 4 of REAL basic training and day 11 since I actually arrived at Ft. Leonard Wood. When I first arrived we spent a week in reception doing paperwork and getting shots and standing in lines a lot. It pretty much sucked - real hard. The most exciting part was this 36 year old woman that was all crazy. She couldn't carry her own bags or eat without assistance or stay awake - even when being tapped over and over again.
But she didn’t' come to real basic with us, so it's all good. It's kind of hard here but not really what I expected. The hardest part - by far - is dealing with all these females with attitudes a whole lot bigger than, um, something really big. Like a blue whale. It's been very frustrating for me to deal with people that are just rude or mean - not because it really upsets me or hurts my feelings, but because there's no reason for it. The drill sergeants have to be mean to us, so why should we be mean to each other and make it that much worse, you know?
I honestly really like my drill sergeants a lot. I guess that sounds kind of weird, but it's true. I have one male and one female in charge of our platoon. They are both very knowledgeable and fair.
Today isn't a good day for me so far. It's not even 6:30 yet, though, so I'm hoping it's going to get a lot better. I came to sick call this morning because I was told that I could come and get some ibuprofen and Neosporin and immediately go back and not miss any training. I have scrapes on my hand from the pull up bar and we're going on our first field exercise in a few days so I felt like it would be very important to get the stuff.
I am very glad that I'm not seriously injured. though and I've almost finished my first full week which means I only have eight and some change to go. I'm really struggling with my upper body strength. It's very frustrating for me because when we do PT using bags or our rifles or something I can do more reps than all the girls and many of the guys but when it comes to push-ups I can barely push my own weight. I do push-ups and sit ups every night on my personal time on top of the ones we do throughout the day but I haven't seen any improvement so far and I don't know what to do.
Ok I've made it to sick call. My ankle is extremely painful this morning - i can barely walk. It does feel a little better with my boots on. I'm really afraid that I have a stress fracture. That would make it a very real possibility that I'd have to start all this crap all over.
So far I would have to say that this is probably my worst birthday ever, but really in the grand scheme of things its isn't that bad at all. Plus I even got time to eat three of the little chocolate covered mini donuts at breakfast. I got a pack of six but didn't finish them fast enough. That was almost like birthday cake. There are about 110 people in line ahead of me so I'll probably be here for lunch and that means I'll get a nutritious and delicious (ha!) MRE for lunch. Super Duper Yay!
Today is officially the fist day of my second week. 8 weeks is a lot better than 9 to go, and hopefully I can recuperate every quickly, stay on schedule and go on to Texas.
<3 J
