Personal Narrative - I Am GI Jane Essay example -- Personal Narrative

I Am GI Jane â€Å"Go! Go! Go!† yelled Drill Sergeant Saunders. I must have fallen asleep for a few seconds because I did not hear him give the order to start crawling. I opened my eyes to all three drill sergeants surrounding me and screaming at the top of their lungs. In my mind I kept asking myself, "Why did I join the U.S. Army?" â€Å"Get the hell off of that wall!† exclaimed Drill Sergeant Hill. He continued to degrade me by yelling, "You will amount to nothing if you don't get your head out of your ass." â€Å"Why are you not out crawling across the field?† exclaimed Drill Sergeant Saunders. He continued by yelling, "What are you waiting for, soldier?" Then Drill Sergeant Moyer had to add to it by yelling, "Pumpkin head get moving before you get shot!" She did not miss one breath while exclaiming, "Move it! Move it! Move it!" She was the dreaded female who had a nickname for everyone. My location was Fort Jackson, South Carolina in the hot and humid late hours of a Friday night in the middle of July 1994. The temperature climaxed at a sweltering 120 degrees during the day with only a relief of ten or twenty degrees during the night. I was in my fifth week of Basic Training and still trying to figure out if I wanted to be just a follower the rest of my life or if I wanted to be a leader some day. I did not figure out the answer to my problem until that miserable Friday night when I was so exhausted from a lack of sleep that I suddenly transformed sleep depravation into motivation. While those three drill sergeants were degrading me, I finally had had enough and decided right then and there I was going on a mission to succeed. My unit, 309th Training Detachment, was on its ... ...hours the two halves switched. In the morning everyone in the unit was tired but we were eager to get things packed up and marching back the ten miles that we had come just two days before. I was in a relaxed frame of mind because the ten miles back to the barracks just did not seem to be so bad compared to the past six-weeks of suffering. I knew that I would get the rest of the day to relax and then the following day I would be graduating from Basic Training. By the end of the six week Basic Training Course I felt I could succeed at any mission I set my mind to. By setting my mind to overcome my pain and suffering, I even believe I can accomplish anything that God has in store for me. I believe this makes me a better person and to this day I do not have any regrets about choosing to be a U.S. Army Soldier. I feel great about my success.