I love messages of
strength and determination; especially when they come from true life stories. Congratulations
to my friend Kayley Portocarrero on making it into the U. S. Navy.
Below is her story, written by her, regarding overcoming obstacles to achieve a goal; her dream of becoming a member of the U.S. Navy. Coincidentally I met
Kayley when she contacted me regarding a story I wrote on this blog about one
of my true life experiences with a Redondo Beach Firefighter/Paramedic. I wrote a post about the importance of telling your own story at
https://jacqibone.blogspot.com/2019/04/tell-your-own-story.html.
https://jacqibone.blogspot.com/2019/04/tell-your-own-story.html.
Strength and determination are among some of the core characteristics essential to being in the U.S. Armed Forces. Here is Kayley's story...
November 8 at
6:40 PM
The day of August 29th I left
for Navy boot camp; a day I honestly never thought would come. But let’s back
up for a second. I had been trying to join the Navy for over a year at that
point. I started my journey in May of 2018. I had to lose a ton of weight to
even be considered. That was my first goal. Once I hit where I knew I could
join, I walked into the recruiting station with no appointment, but a lot
determination. This is what I want to do with my life. Fast forward to...
October 2018, after many tests and evaluations Big Navy permanently
disqualified me. I was upset and kept thinking to myself that I wasn’t good
enough. I quickly got over that, and started researching how to get in the Navy
as an Officer (the requirements can differ), so I started working on my degree
again in order to reapply for the Navy. I kept going to the gym, kept myself
accountable every single day. In April, my recruiter contacted me and told me
that some changes had been made and I have another 50/50 shot of possibly
enlisting. I was hesitant for about 0.5 seconds and thought: “fuck that, you’ve
worked to hard to not give it another chance.” Another month goes by and I
finally get approved and swore in to the Navy.
The last two months in boot camp were nothing like what I expected. I’ve never been such a negative environment before, but it turns out that I learned a lot about who I was in situations that stressed me out the most. I made some amazing friends, I learned that I can do ANYTHING I put my mind to. I’m so honored to be apart of the United States Navy, and glad the Navy took a chance on me. Now I’m at Fort Sam Houston ready to become a Hospital Corpsman. #navysailor #futurecorpsman #womeninuniform #militarywomen #usnavy
