Going to the army Options

[WC8]

I have 57 credits completed.

Basically what happened was I dicked around again this year, and ended up taking incompletes in my two physics labs, leaving me with 8 unfinished credits. My school requires you finish 24 each academic year to maintain financial aid. I finished 18. Thus, they are denying me my financial aid for at least the first semester. I need a $21,000 loan for the first semester alone to be able to go back and take my regular courses as well as retake the two labs. As long as I pass the labs with sufficient grades to pull at least a D- in both of my physics courses, I will get my financial aid for the second semester, where I'll likely need to get a $5000 - $6000 loan, which is much easier to get (my girlfriend is willing to co-sign if need be). The problem is getting the $21,000 loan for the first semester. I can't get it, my parents can't co-sign. My grandfather has offered to co-sign, but he isn't exactly confident that his credit is good enough to get the loan.

I can't attend part-time because school is two hours from home, and I don't have a car or the money to get an apartment up at school. I'm credit-wise a junior, so I can't enroll in any program at the local community college, only part-time courses. It's getting down to the wire, as classes start two weeks from now. My grandfather cosigning the loan is make or break.

The other issue with the scenario is that if I have to take a year off, there is no guarantee that I will get housing next year, in fact it is highly likely that the opposite will be true and I will be forced to find my own place to live off campus for two years. Also, there's no guarantee that I will receive financial aid for the 2011-2012 year if I take the 2010-2011 year off. In other words, it's go or go home at this point for me to finish this degree.

All I fucking need is those two lab classes to rectify themselves, and all my problems go away, but they make it so difficult to fix things once you fuck up. I couldn't even get some sort of probationary/compliance waiver from my school financial aid department, I thought it was bogus. My biggest beef isn't that they're denying me this. Fine, it's the policy, that's cool. My beef is that when after the first semester I had only finished 6 credits (because of a drop, withdrawal and the one incomplete), I didn't receive any notification from my school's financial aid department that I would be in danger of losing my financial aid if I didn't complete X credits. I would've beefed up my second semester schedule and tried like hell to rectify that incomplete, but I was oblivious to the consequences and now I'm paying the price.

Every problem I have is compounded by my lack of a driver's license, as the community college is about 20 miles away from here, so I can't even enroll part time there, I have no way of getting back and forth. So my loan payments begin in December if this loan doesn't work out for me. I have my job, and I can continue there full-time for a while, but it's overnights in fast food and I've been on the verge of walking out of the place more than once this summer, so it's not a long-term solution.

[Ahzz]

ok didn't make an update for last week at all, so here's it in a nutshell:

I was sick the whole week, and didn't have to serve except a little.

However, THIS week....

I was sick the first threeish days... basically they finally decided to examine my sickness a little bit further since it had been nearly two weeks, and they found out I had some infection which made my flu go on and on without getting better. They gave me proper medicine (antibiotics) and I'm feeling pretty much normal atm. This week has been a bit easier in general, so there's not quite so much to say, but it's been mostly shooting so far, from all kinds of positions... From the knee, while laying down, while standing up... While laying down and standing we shoot at turning boards, so we have limited time to shoot.
I really want to do well with shooting, since it's really easy to get one free day off which I can use whenever I want (almost).
Also, I made my decision and I'm going to stay for a year with 99% probability. I'd only have a few days to change it anyway... I've been wanting to experience the kinds of things that this training offers, I've been wanting new experiences and a little bit of adventure and stuff, and I hope that this is a good way to do so (all the while while I get leadership training with is a nice addition to my CV). Before any of you even begin, I'm know well that I could have better ways to test myself and adventure a bit without committing myself for an extra half a year, but this feels like an easy and cheap way to do so (in fact, I might end up receiving money in the end even taking to account all expenses.

Later on if I get chosen to the group that goes even further with leadership training (which is strategic thinking, thinking how to place the troops in a certain area in best possible way etc, whereas the other leadership training is just executing and telling the soldiers what the previous leader just said) then I will be more busy than before... I heard that they have every second weekend off only, during the 14 week period anyway.

Next weeks program is why we've had it easy this week though. We'll be spending 3 days in the forest in a manner I already explained before. We'll see how I do this time, probably better since this time I know a way to keep my socks dry... Last time I didn't because I was stupid.

[WC8]

Ahzz, I think the full year is a good idea, imo.

The other benefit of full service, at least in the states, is easy government jobs for the most part. I don't know how it works in Finland, but in the US, if you've served in the military, you don't have to take the civil service exams which are used to get most of the government jobs, and you start with however many years you served towards retirement.

[lammas]

Works rather differently in Finland, as you gain absolutely nothing by serving full time.

Only adventage as I see it is getting to know succesful people. I mean you are aiming for a career in math so you are not going to need that in your cv. If you become a teacher, you don't need a cv at all since there are so few math teachers in Finland. If you on the other hand look for an academic career it's not going to help either.

But maybe it's fun so have fun! (no I'm not being sarcastic)

[Ahzz]

Had some 'exams' these last two days which were really fun.... Well, not really exams. More like we had to practise actual war-like situations.

First day:
This was about testing how good of a natural leader you are.
Every place scored you from 0-10 except #3 apparently.

1. You and your buddies need to set up a tent, mask it, gather wood etc. Make sure things are done as smoothly as possible and divide the jobs, explain what they need to do etc.

2. Someone is hurt in a car accident, take control of the situation and act properly

3. You and your buddies were investigating the enemy. One of your guys got shot in the leg and cannot go on, while the enemy got severly wounded on the stomach, decide what the best course of action is.

4. You and 3 men are on the field, while you're surprised by a single enemy. Order them properly so that everything goes smoothly and there are no deaths.

5. A group of high schoolers come to visit and they want you to show your gun around. Show it to them.

Now, I did really well, way above average in pretty much everyone of these.... EXCEPT #3. Fricken three, still pisses me off lmao. We only had 1 minute to read this really long story about the situation, then you had to go to the place and order the people around. First off, I only remembered that the enemy was wounded, not severely wounded, so I shot him. apparently they TOOK -10 points with just that. Afterwards I thought about going on with just two men while 2 others bring the wounded back, but then decided im not going to be a hero with just two out of 5 people, and just decided to stay guard the place until they return. Not the best choice obv. but it was the best I could come up with since I only had 1 minute to read, think, and then 2 minutes to act. I got -7 from this alltogether. Now, had I gotten even 5, which is average performance, I would have had 30 points alltogether or more, which is one of the best there were. Now, I was below average because of one screwup. lol. Still, I had fun.


Today we tested our basic skills as a soldier, which included (some are easy): Loading your gun properly, putting together a grenade, running forward in a thick forest while staying in a row, and while there's enemy threat around. This wasn't easy cuz the sergeants ran like madmen. Suddenly we had to play as if we're being bombed, and had to cover ourselves properly so that our life is in as small of a danger as possible. The sergeants acted unconcious, and we had to know how to set them up so that they're properly supported, can breathe properly etc... Afterwards we had to attack an enemy location. Everyone had bullets made of wood which explode before they get out of the gun, so they create an impact, sound, show the fire etc, but cannot harm anyone... The enemy had a machinegun which kept shooting at us, and we had to advance properly with coverfire etc. Finally once we had advanced close enough we had to destroy the enemy post with a grenade.
After that we had to run on to a location where we were setting an ambush for enemy vehicles. We planted mines to the road, and went for cover. Soon an actual tank came on the road, and once it was immobilized we had to use rocket launchers or bazookas or whatever you call them to destroy it (no we didn't get to shoot the real thing, nor throw a REAL grenade yet, we were playing but it felt real enough for this practise), and finally use our guns to shoot at the guy on top of it with a machine gun.
We were also tested if we knew how to guard a place in case someone tries to approach the place you're guarding. (how passwords work etc, when should we shoot etc)
We advanced, and as the final thing we were informed that the enemy is using gas weapons, so we had to put on all this crap to keep our skin out of danger, and know how to put our gasmask on within 10 seconds of hearing that there's an actual gas threat around. No real gas was around, but meh.

Overall it was really fun in my opinion, as it was actual practise for a real situation rather than just walking around.

In two days we go to the forest trip. 2 nights, 3 days. This friday I'll have the weekend off.