I joined the military through the Delayed Enlistment Program while I was still in high school. Even before my senior year, I knew I would not be ready for college. In fact, I wasn’t even ready to enter the workforce when I graduated. I had been a lazy, inactive high school student, one of those slackers with a childish work ethic and poor discipline. As a result of my careless attitude, I graduated with a lackluster 2.74 unweighted GPA. “How do you expect to get a stable job when you only do the work you want to do, Manuel?” I remember my mother saying, hoping to illustrate the impracticality of my immature philosophy. But I was lost. Even though I wanted to follow my family’s useful guidance, I knew I couldn’t do it on my own. My life lacked discipline and structure. It lacked the kind of knowledge that only experience and time can impart. That is one of the reasons I enlisted in the Air Force.