Prior to joining the Marine Corps I was a high school drop out. I used to hang out with the wrong crowd and rarely went to school to the point that they told me I could not graduate high school without transferring into independent studies. I would have to make up for a years worth of credits in one semester to graduate. I transfered into independent studies and dropped out of that program a month later. This was at seventeen years old. I started working at an auto shop around that time and planned on getting my GED. I procrastinated getting a GED until I was nineteen years old and finally went to the adult school in my area to sign up for the test. I took the test without taking any pre-test classes or reviews and scored so high that the proctor asked why I'm not attending a four year university and how did I ended up in the situation I was in. I told her the same story that I'm telling you today. I received my GED, kept working at the same auto shop, and kept hanging out with the same friends. .
A few months later I enrolled in my area's community college. I decided to sign up for a few Administration of Justice classes, because my entire life I looked up to my uncle who was, and still is, a police officer in Oakland, CA. He is also a retired Gunnery Sergeant from the Marine Corps. He also was misguided when he was young and joined the Marines as a last resort. Now he has a house in a nice neighborhood, a wife of 12 years, a daughter, and is one of the most stable relatives I have in all aspects of the word. He has been a role model to me my entire life even if he doesn't realize it.
I started college at the age of twenty and still continued to hang around the same friends between working forty hours a week and taking twelve credits worth of classes. After my first year in college I started to take a look at my life and wanted to set a goal for myself. I needed to get away from the old friends I used to hang out with and start a new path.