My First Day In Basic Training (Army)

Im (PFC) Torres, and I like to talk to you how my experience in starting basic training and how I prepared to start basic went. It started in 2021 during the covid pandemic I was 16 at the time I live in Puerto Rico which most people don't know is a United States territory so anyone born there is a US. Citizen, I was about to start the 10th grade when I heard of a military school that allows you to finish highschool in just 6 months, The name of the school is called Youth challenge Academy. I had to get permission from my parents to go and they agreed, while in that school they showed young kids ranging from ages 16-18 how to become a well educated, discipline, care giving member of society. Anyone who act up was punished with manuel labor. During this time you were split into groups known as platoon 1, platoon 2, platoon 3, platoon 4, platoon 5, and platoon 6. I was in platoon 6 anytime someone in your platoon messed up everyone in the platoon payed for that persons mistake, you had to eat when they tell you to, walk when they tell you to, look where they tell you, shower, sleep, exercise and so on. The showers you only had 8 minutes from when you got in the building to come out clean and everything you used has to be put away nicely, it seemed impossible but we were able to do it just fine after messing up a few times. We did a 30 minute exercise each morning apart from Saturdays and Sundays which were the days we spent that time cleaning the entirety of the barracks. Any dirt dust or grime that was found is 10 minutes of exercise we had to endure, on top of this we also had to learn basic highschool classes like math, history, language arts, computer, and English class. Which we only had to take English class cause this takes place in Puerto Rico, luckily I already know English so it was a gifted A+ for me. Despite everything I just mentioned about this school it was amazing having the opportunity to be with so many people with different walks of life gather together helping one another to do their best in graduating, once I graduated from youth challenge I enlisted in the US army national guard right away. I enlisted as a 92G(field feeding specialist) once I swore loyalty to the United States. And the the government of Puerto Rico, I was taken to an airport where I said my goodbyes to my family and was taken to basic. I was taken to Fort Jackson. The first two weeks was just processing where they give you all of the equipment you'll need for basic training, everybody there was so happy and motivated to start. Buses came to pick everyone up and take them to meet their drill sergeant. Once we got to their we were met with yelling and hard exercise immediately, for not getting out the bus fast enough. After what I believe was an hour maybe longer of unbearable pain from the exercise they finally gave us a proper greeting. They showed us what we will be doing everyday and made sure everyone understood everything, they gave us that one day of annoying them with questions because they even told us if we ask them questions of what the already explained to us the other day, we will get hell for it. The rest of basic went very smoothly I already know what was to come because of my experience in Youth challenge. I enjoyed every moment I was there. And if I had the chance of doing it all again I probably would. I joined basic as an E-1(PVT) when I was 17 years old, after basic I went to AIT. To learn how to become a 92G(field feeding specialist) it was a lot nicer and smoother in AIT compared to basic. We had lots of fun. Once I came back to Puerto Rico I was ranked up to E-2(PV2) right away, we were congratulated and shown to our new leaders, few months later I'm now E-3(PFC) and I can safely say I dont regret a damn thing, I love the experience I had with everyone who led me to this point on and like I said before if I had to do it all again I would. Thanks for your time in reading my story:)