A hitch, or a possible opportunity

Well, I just got my first taste of the concept of "the needs of the military." That didn't take long.

About three weeks ago, I went to my first DEP meeting with all the other Air Force people waiting to ship out. Going in, I really wasn't thinking anything of it. Until he said he'd found me a job. At first I was just surprised, since I way wasn't expecting one so quickly. Then I was nervous, because I hadn't expected to leave so soon, and just general early nerves about leaving, boot camp, etc. And then I was excited, because I've been feeling ready and anxious to start my life, as it were, and head out to Cali and start learning a language.

And then he told me that my job was not as a linguist, but as an air traffic controller. And I could just feel my face fall.

I knew going in that this was a risk, and that I might get picked for a different job. At MEPS, they had had me pick five jobs, and I had agreed that I'd be able and willing to do any of them. Of course, everyone kept saying that with my high DLAB score and the military's need for linguists, I'd almost definitely get that job, so I didn't need to worry too much about the other ones on my list. Wrong. But, I had agreed to it, and it was a risk I accepted, so I really couldn't be mad about it. That didn't mean that I wasn't really disappointed and a bit confused, though.

So, after a few minutes of me sitting very very still while he tried to sell me on air traffic control by telling me how much money they make (I did manage to tell him that that really wasn't one of my concerns), I recovered enough to start processing, and then to start looking at options.

I know that the needs of the Air Force came first, but I'm also pretty certain that I'd be able to serve them and myself much better by being a linguist rather than an ATC, due in no small part to the fact that historically, I'm not the greatest with the being-under-pressure. And ATC is a super stressful job. As in, you make a mistake and 300 people die. No wonder it has such a high suicide rate (also a problem).

But, that's the job they've assigned to me. So, there we are.

And, to make matters more frustrating, there's another kid who had just sworn in that day who actually wants to do ATC. My recruiter called his superior to see if they could just switch us and make everybody happy, but apparently the paperwork had already gone too far for that. Boo.

BUT, if a linguist job happens to come up before I leave for basic for ATC, and as long as no one else wants it, then to fill all the job openings, they can move me to linguist and move this other kid into my ATC spot. That would be super sweet.

I've also started considering an option I'd pretty much written off a while ago, of becoming an officer. I think I'd become so single-minded about being a linguist that I hadn't really considered any other jobs, and since there are no linguist officers, I'd didn't really look into it. And I still say that leading people isn't my favoritest thing in the world, but there are certainly perks. The substantially better pay and housing, for one. And the opportunity to travel more than I would have gotten as a linguist. And while there isn't a linguist officer, there is an intelligence officer, which is pretty much who linguists report to, so that could be pretty cool. I still think I'd rather be a linguist, but I do definitely think it's worth considering.

Regardless, the whole thing has at least made me take a serious look at why I want to join the military, what I want out of my time there, and ultimately the general path I see my life taking in the relatively near future. At first, I just started looking into it because I couldn't find a "real job." I wanted to learn a language, and I figured the Air Force would be a pretty sweet way to do it, but up until then I had had no military aspirations whatsoever. It was mostly just a means to an end.

So whenever my recruiter first said that it looked like I couldn't be a linguist, it was like watching that entire future I'd been so excited about just crumble away. No California, no learning a language, no getting paid to translate things.

So then I thought, now what?

But when I thought about going back into the job-hunting foray, that made me even more depressed than air traffic control. Mostly, it all came together (as many things seem to do) when I was talking to my mom about it. She asked me a question that I hadn't thought to ask myself. She said, "What's more important to you, joining the Air Force or being a linguist?"

And I realized, much to my surprise, that the answer was joining the Air Force. After all, even if I do end up doing ATC, I can always try to retrain into linguist later. They still need linguists. And I'd still be significantly more secure financially, and still have many more options open to me in the Air Force than I would as a civilian, regardless of the job. And I could always teach myself a language later, or get Rosetta Stone, or use some of that money that military personnel get for school to go take more language classes. And even if I got out after four or six years, I'd still be able to call myself a veteran and still have the personal pride of having served my country and done something so entirely outside my comfort zone.

So, surprisingly enough, even if it ends up that I can't be an Air Force linguist, I'd still like to be an Airman. Very interesting. And pretty nice to know.

Of course, if they'd just let me be a linguist, that'd be pretty awesome too.