When I grow up.....

My mom found this today:

Let me re-type it:

- Go to Russia
        -Visit Black Sea
        -Visit countries like Uzbec.
        -Go to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Leningrad
- Get a creamish brown gelding [horse] call him Georgie
- FLY
- Move to Hollywood next door to Leonardo Di Caprio [I wrote this list in 1997, after Titanic came out...]
- Be in a movie 


 First of all, for those who KNOW ME really well, you will realize that point number one has been a solid goal for about a year and half (I've been researching visas, travel ideas, trying to get some family members to come, etc). I shelved it recently in exchange for South America. Why? Because there are MANY Air Force bases in Asia (Kyrgyzstan for one...) that would allow me to fulfill point one very easily. There are no bases in South America, so I had considered doing a massive trip there before I go to OTS so that I can knock it out of my "to travel" list.

About the horse, I've upgraded my pet wishes to a Fox and a Goat, but it still fits along the "outrageous pet" theme.

Point. Number. Three. May I refer you back to my first blog post. Since high school, I kind of pushed this wish/dream of flying to the back burner. I honestly thought that it would never happen. Note how it is the only point in all caps.

This list makes me laugh and also makes me a little proud. I've jumped around from job to job, relationship to relationship, and country to country. I often feel a little scattered and I'm sure that people who know me and watch me wonder what the f*ck I'm doing! However, the things that I wanted to do when I was 12, I STILL WANT TO DO. I am happy that my adult self isn't succumbing to the status quo and doing what society expects me to do. 

Addressing point 4: Leonardo Di Caprio is a hottie. If he is interested in dating me, I'm down.
Point 5: I would still love to be in a movie. Who DOESN'T want to be famous? :)

Next Steps

Hi Everyone,
So I've had some time to get over the crappy TBAS score.

On Thursday I was interviewed by the commanding officer of my recruiter. She writes up her opinion/recommendation and submits it along with my application. It was a similar interview to the one I did earlier when I was applying to intel. I basically got asked about leadership positions. Apparently she would have liked it if I were in more leadership positions, but otherwise, she said that I seemed like a really strong candidate.

My recruiter went over next steps with me. If I don't get accepted, that's it. I'm done. I can reapply in six months to another rated or non-rated board (I'd probably apply again to the non-rated board for an intelligence position).
If I get accepted, I will go again to MEPS (Medical entrance processing station) here in Boston, and since I've already done a medical, I will sign the paperwork that basically commits me to X job in the Air Force. I will also do a swearing in, and be put on "delayed deployment". My recruiter is going to transfer my package to a Boston based recruiter, and apparently, I have to meet with a recruiter once a month before I'm deployed. This was news to me, because I had actually planned on doing a bunch of travel come September. However, I will just cross that bridge when I come to it. Maybe there's some way that I can get a two or three month stretch free.
Also, I will have to go do a Class IA flying physical. This is going to be a more stringent physical that checks me much more intensively than the one I did earlier. Apparently, it takes about a month to get all the results (don't know why). Then they will do my security clearance.
I looked at OTS "class dates" (the beginning of my 12 weeks in officer training school), and there is one October 30. I'm almost  positive that I will not be done in time for that. The next one is January 8, and the next one after that is February 26. There is a good chance that I will be in either the January or February class. I'm hoping for the January class...I mean, I'm tired of waiting...I'd like to get started...

The last board announced their decision at the end of February (Feb 28). My recruiter said that from the people who were accepted from that last board, one has left in June, and the other 6 are leaving in July. So hopefully, the January date will be possible for me...In addition, the last rated board accepted about 68% of applicants, so if that is the trend to go by, I think my chances of acceptance are more than good...

Apart from that, I've been working as a server in a restaurant, 2 restaurants, actually, and continuing to fly. Unfortunately, I am in quite a bit of debt from flying lessons, and I can't justify the expense of doing more, so it's currently on hold. There's no rush though. Now that my application is submitted, I can't do anything to "improve" it, so I can take my time with the pilot license. I'm just going to keep studying the FAA questions and practice tests, and then I'll learn about flying "cross country" with Mike.

And that's all for now...

TBAS & PCSM

So, I took the TBAS on June 7th after literally chasing down 4 different people over the course of a week. The TBAS was annoyingly difficult, and I was pretty sure I did poorly.

Well, I did. My pilot candidate selection method score is a 30 (out of a possible 99). I just went online to check other pilot candidate slots, and there are SOME pilots selected who have stats similar to mine, but most do not. Most of the people who have scored poorly on the TBAS and still get a flight slot went through OTS, which I assume means they were a "minority". The best scores are all from ROTC candidates.

I'm hoping that the female fact will play a larger role than I expected in selection. Again, my recruiter told me that I have an extremely good chance of getting in at least as a CSO (Combat Systems Officer) which is totally fine, but it still sucks to think about the work and effort put into this process and presuming that I will not get a flight slot *sigh*

I will be re-interviewing on Thursday with another commanding officer. My old interview was for the non-rated (intel) board. This interview, I assume, will be geared more towards flying. It will hopefully also give me a chance to explain my lower than average AFOQT pilot score...The application will be completed by next Monday and sent in shortly after. It will be nice to have it all set and done. Anyway, I'm clearly in a sad mood.

On a brighter note, I'm almost done with my private pilot license. I now have the ability to go flying whenever I want without Mike. I can't take people up with me yet, and I can't go further than 25 nautical miles from Bedford, but still. It's nice.