When you’re being recognized for the quality you most pride yourself on, that feeling is like none other.
Grit, perseverance, determination, and hard work.
My file went to the Board and my application got accepted by a committee of Marine Corp Officers in early 2019. I was officially going to Quantico, VA for 10 weeks of Officer Candidate School. Yet I still lacked in my physique. I couldn’t do a single pull-up and pull-ups mattered. My run was fine and my crunches were mediocre. Despite how strong I looked and how much weight I could pull, my lats, shoulders, and back muscles wouldn’t fire. I’ve never done a single pull-up in my life.
So began my day-to-day 0900 trainings at the Boston OSS. I went every morning and didn’t fail to show up. I listened to the guidance of my recruiting officers, changed my diet, and kept working out despite balancing law school, marathon training, and fatigue. I continued going to cross-fit. I ate at least 100g of protein a day to make sure my body could repair and continue to build the muscles I was working everyday.
Then, there was progress.
I did one chin-up. I was close to one pull-up. Then I started following a new pull-up training plan. I did one pull-up. Finally, I did four pull-ups.
Today was the now or never moment of my pre-ship PFT. And I was extremely nervous.
I did 110 crunches in under two minutes. I ran 2.8 miles in 19:20 minutes. And I did 7 pull-ups. I managed to make a 275 PFT score and I couldn’t be prouder. 5 more pull-ups and it’d been a perfect score but I’ll take it!
Huge shout out to the officers, veterans, people, my sister, her boyfriend, and my girlfriend for supporting me throughout my journey to conquer this obstacle. Despite how hard OCS will be and how much the DIs will scream in my face and try to get under my skin, I will never forget the support and love from home in New York and in Boston. I have bigger goals in mind for the future and those 10 weeks will pale in comparison once in hindsight. I won’t fail nor will I succumb to the pressure, and mental and physical fatigue because I worked my butt off and there are people that believe that I can do it.
So I will do it for everyone that is waiting for me and believing in me.
