My recruiter assured me I was rather lucky as the cut-off to enlist is May 10th. Not understanding what he meant by this he said that the Marine Corps is no longer taking enlistments after the 10th of May for this year.
I thought that surely he was joking.
Then, upon surfing the internet, I came across a question by a girl who said that her recruiter had told her she was no longer eligible to enlist as she had missed the cut off for this year and would have to wait until the next fiscal year to enlist.
Suddenly the words of my recruiter did not sound so much like jest.
Still later I heard reports that the Navy is no longer granting any kind of weight waivers, the Air Force is closing recruiting stations all over the US and the Army is also starting to deny even the most basic of waivers.
Despite ridiculously low ASVAB score standards in the 30s and 40s for all branches of service have stopped processing potential recruits who score lower than 50 on the practice ASVAB test.
Gone are the days of, "Well, you can always join the military."
All branches, being flooded by desperate peoples looking for security and a pay check and hand-tied by budget cuts and a bad economy have started turning people down and away.
And here I am, an underweight, financially secure, mother and wife, just slipping beneath the red tape for no better reason than to fulfill a girl-hood dream.
I'm beginning to feel very grateful and lucky. I could have easily missed the deadline if only delayed for seven more days. I could have easily been denied my weight waiver or not found the payment info for the 2004 speeding ticket.
So many things could have delayed me just a few more days and almost assuredly destroyed my chances of enlisting at all.
My timing couldn't have been more perfect nor my luck better.
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