In the first post in this series, I talked about my reasons why I am considering rejoining the Army Reserves, and since it is a month later, I figured it would be a good time to update what is going on…which isn’t really a whole lot at this point.
Shortly after my previous post, I found an e-mail attached to the Army Reserve Career Counselor’s responsible for Direct Commissions. After some e-mails back and forth clarifying what I was actually asking about, I was passed on to the Career Counselor responsible for my geographic region… who I didn’t hear from for about three weeks. After finally getting around to responding to my initial query, it turns out that the person that I will eventually need to talk to is yet another career counselor. I guess it is my fault for trying to be so proactive, and seeing as how I can’t really start the process for a little while (more on that in a minute), I don’t blame them for pushing me off until later, especially when I’m sure that they have other work to do. It was just a nice reminder of how things work in the Reserves sometime.
The only other thing that really occurred in the past month is a visit I had with a former Army colleague while I was in California on spring break. When the fiance and I arrived in Anaheim, my good friend Alberto reached out and wanted to get lunch. I had forgotten that he was in Anaheim, literally a few minutes from where we were staying, so we delayed a day in Disneyland to meet him for lunch. It was really good to see him, and I was reminded that he was one of the many good people that I met during my time in the Reserves.
He was my direct supervisor as a Reserve Soldier for few years, and one of the few people that actively worked towards helping me stay in the Army, and even though I wasn’t able to follow up and stick around through his efforts for various reasons, he was actually interested in my military future. Not saying that others weren’t, but Alberto definitely went the extra mile. Beyond the Army, we kind of went through our divorces together, so it was always nice to have a friend there to support me in what was a very trying time.
While talking with him at lunch, I mentioned that I was considering going back to the Army, and he was nothing but encouraging. As stated in the first post, and the whole premise of this series, I really feel that I have more to offer the Army Reserve, and Alberto confirmed that he always thought that I would get to the point where I could be an officer. Though it didn’t happen 5-6 years ago like it probably should have, his encouragement to do what I need to do in order to get back in was something that I needed to hear. As we parted, and the reason for our impromptu visit, was his pending departure to Kuwait for the next year. He’ll do awesome in whatever role he serves, and I hope that he’ll be around down the road if/when I get back into the Army.
In the meantime, I have been slowly getting back into the rhythm of running. A change in the weather has been helpful, and running outside is always nicer than circling a track at the gym or trudging on a treadmill. I’ve been working on adjusting my diet a bit, a constant work in progress, and will continue to work hard as I try to lose between 60-80 pounds by the end of the year.At that point, I will be in better shape physically to actually start the process and hopefully apply for the Direct Commission board during next year.
Every day I’m shuffling.
Until next time…
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