My AFJROTC experience by Amelie

My AFJROTC experience by Amelie - December 2016 Scholarship Essay

I am a Senior at Wade Hampton High School this year and I needed a P. E. credit class in order to graduate. I only had 2 options: ROTC or P. E. I had many friends that had taken both classes, some told me that P. E. was easy, and those in ROTC loved it. I decided that easy wasn't exactly my favorite type of class. I prefer a challenge, something I care about, something I can work hard and prove myself in. I then joined ROTC. At first it was very different than any class i'd ever had, but it was very fun and the people in my class were intelligent. We had tests, different types of grades, and some opportunities to focus on work in other classes if we needed to catch up. This class showed me discipline and taught me some history in aviation. All in all, it was very interesting.

One day, I came to class and sat down, and all of a sudden, I was promoted. This was my first year so I had originally had the first rank, but with this new promotion, I was now a Major. This was the third highest rank in all the corps. I was very excited and shocked, how could I skip so many ranks? I always made straight a's in the class but nothing of the sort could get me promoted so much. I was then given the responsibility of being the WINGS officer. This is a computer program that kept track of student's and the events they did in ROTC. It was a huge responsibility, but I knew that I would dedicate my time and effort to making sure everything got done. With my new rank, I was certainly not going to let anyone regret the choice they made and I certainly was not going to let anyone down.