Update

Update

I have been a bad, bad, bloggger, I hate to write excuses for not posting, "I am too busy" is a sucky reason, but it inconvinently happens to be the truth, I have been doing a bunch of "stuff".

This has been quite a summer for me. Let's review all of the things I had to do.

Take two classes in Summer A and the Senior Project in Summer C.
Summer A is Six weeks long, week 3 and 4 were spent in Camp Blanding Florida doing my National Guard Training, I had to catch up when I returned, not pretty.

That was in May and early Jume, whe I finished Summer A I had to concentrate on finishing the Senior Project early enough so I could have time to go up to Rochester for my internship.

After being here two weeks, I flew down to do the presentation, did that last week.
This week I had a few permanent job interviews. Thanks to Project View, IBM flew me down to Raleigh NC to meet managers that were looking for a few good engineers.

I got back to Rochester Wedndsday night. Things are still moving, I plan to get to Chicago somehow, someway to visit my old friend Kamran, Then, I get back to school, in true hispanic fashion..two weeks late. Yep, School starts Monday, but I am staying here until Labor Day, why? I am trying my best to learn as much as posible before heading back to Fl to work, also, no point in hiding it, I am trying to get noticed so that I get a permanent job offer. I hope it all goes well. I have a feeling that it will.

So, the summer is almost done, as a result, I feel a little closer to calling myself a Computer Engineer. Finishing the project did that.

Also, I am proud to announce that I am a civilian once again!

Finally, after all these years. I no longer owe Uncle Sam any more time of my life. I am out. I really cannot believe it. I almost forgot. Really.

But I am happy that is behind me now. No more deployments, no more weekend drills, but, in retrospect, I am glad I did it, I wish I would have gone to college first, but I would do it over. Even the Iraq part. No regrets.

Sometimes I think about how far I would have gone if I had known in 8th Grade that I wanted to be an engineer and I had set my goal to get in a good school. Then I try to shake that thought away, since dweling in the past is counter-productive, besides, I would be a different person. I would not have met my wife, or none of my friends.

I am the person that I am because of all the people I have met along the way. The Marines thought me a lot more than I give them credit for.

Sometimes people ask me if I would let my son Join the Marines, the answer depends on how I feel that day. I would like my son to be a college graduate, I wouldn't want me son to be a trained killer. But, there's more to it than that. I guess I would let him make his own decision, but I am not going to make the military seem glamorous for him.

I know how my Dad feels about me going to the Marines, he thinks that it was a waste of my time, because I should have gone to school first. I see the merit in that argument, but it misses the point, I joined the marines to develop myself, I thought I needed a chanllenge and guidance, it was an educational experience for me, I learned a lot about myself and about people in general, also, I never thought about college when I was in high school, I wonder why? I don't know, the marines were in my mind for a while, since, like 10th grade. I read a bunch of books about the Marines and I was determined to be a General someday, I did not go to College first because I was not an U.S. citizen at the time, so I did not qualify for any officer programs in college, so I enlisted instead.

Plans change, people change. It happens. I went from being a military minded person to an engineer wannabe. Now I am transitioning from broke college student with a family to an older-than-average-recent-college-graduate-professional.

I am not ungrateful, after all, the U.S. Military gave me money for school, but I had to go to Iraq, I had to study while working, I was older than the most kids, which sometimes made me feel out of place, but for the most part gave me an edge.

So that sums it up. Summer is almost done, and I am heading towards my last semester in my Bachelors degree.

Family is doing good. I miss them. In fact, I'll give them a call.

J.V.