ipl-logo

Personal Narrative: My Military Life

889 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Erik erikson's eight stages of development

Part I. Introduction
I thought I was well prepared for the continuous chaos and commotion of cadet life. Though neither of my parents had any military background, I was one of ten children – yes, ten children. I grew up in Beaver, Pennsylvania – a beautiful, small town in the outskirts of Pittsburgh and situated on the banks of the Beaver and Ohio rivers. It was a very practical location for my parents to raise such a large family. There was ample space for housing and property in a location well removed from the overwhelming turbulence of the city life. However, the city was always within reach. Therefore, my siblings and I were afforded the best of both worlds or rather a healthy mix of rural, suburban, and city life. I was the sixth of …show more content…

The challenge began in the crucible of Beast Barracks. Beast or Cadet Basic Training is designed to challenge the individual at every level. New cadets rarely escape unscathed from discoveries of their own weaknesses and shortcomings whether they be physical, psychological, emotional, or spiritual. In these times of difficulty and doubt, one’s identity often requires thorough scrutiny. My entire life I had tied or woven my personal identity closely to my family identity. Despite this, I considered myself an independent and individualistic person. However, the plunge into military life tested my preconceived self-perceptions. I found myself isolated from my family and other familiarities, and forced to solely cultivate and define my personal identity as a cadet. I believe, through it all, I retained an idea of my personal identity; however, it was now being tested. This uncertainty led to numerous instances where insecurities and doubts clouded my judgement and adversely affected both cognition and emotion in difficult situations. This confusion or challenge can be better understood through its application to developmental and a personality theories. Concerning the developmental theory, the cognitive and affective issues arising from my identity crisis can be applied to Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Stage including the major psychosocial crisis of Identity vs. Role Confusion, and also to Marcia’s “Identity status” of Moratorium (Passer & Smith, 2011, p. 430, 447). Concerning the personality theory, the cognitive and affective issues arising from my identity crisis can very well be applied to the Neuroticism Dimension within the Five Factor Model (Passer & Smith, 2011, p.

Show More
Related
689 Words | 3 Pages

”(554) John reassured his father and told him” All you have to do with yourself is worry. ”(554) Frank knew his son had a job to do and was frustrated that he could do nothing. He watched on television as first responders and military personnel tried to find survivors. He felt proud of his son for being in the military and could look the other “men and women in uniform in the eye”(554) because his son

Read More
674 Words | 3 Pages

Soldiers who fought in wars throughout the years are viewed as heroes in their countries eyes. Nobody actually knows what the soldiers have to go through mentally and physically. Nobody knows about the traumatic experiences and different emotions these young and women had to go through. In Tim O 'Brien 's Book “ The Things They Carried”, he shares multiple stories about different characters experiences. Tim O’Brien showed how the war can affect different characters from changing their personality or having guilt for the rest of their lives.

Read More
1036 Words | 5 Pages

The environment in which an individual grows up in can affect life greatly. Our surroundings influence one’s personality, self-expression, and individuality, otherwise known as identity. Finding one’s true self is the most grueling stage of life and expectations of family and society make the process even harder. One’s true identity can sometimes clash with hopes of others, thus breaking tradition and/or family ties. Pressure to change will always be present, but staying true to uniqueness will prevail.

Read More
951 Words | 4 Pages

First off, my father, like his father, had enlisted. Apart from the individuals in from my family joining, I was inspired by my recruiter. The life he lived and the stories he told were inspirational. This is similar to how the prisoners in the cave saw the shadows of the puppets, “and of the objects which [were] being carried they would only see the shadows.” (7) The prisoners believed that the shadows were real, “would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?”

Read More
1097 Words | 5 Pages

Identity Development Everyone experiences trauma at some point in their lives. Whether it be small, like skinning one’s knee, or large, like witnessing the death of a loved one, trauma can drastically affect how an individual grows and finds their own identity. In the long run, trauma can either be beneficial towards establishing one’s identity or detrimental. Traumatic events play a large part in the overall outcome and development of positive and negative self concept and identity progression.

Read More
1575 Words | 7 Pages

A Vietnam vet? Where am I going to find a Vietnam vet for this assignment? When I first learned about this interview assignment, I did not know what to write about of who to interview. Until I remembered that my grandfather name Felix Ruiz went to the Vietnam War. My grandfather was born in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico in 1938.

Read More
1199 Words | 5 Pages

In Whistling Vivaldi, Steele explains a similar situation occurring at the University of Michigan. The racial segregation at the university causes many black students to blame their struggles on their race. Consequently, they do not realize that all types of students are facing similar problems.(166-167) In a similar fashion, student veterans might blame the problems they face on their identity, rather than see them as a normal occurrence in a college environment. Steele proposes that “fostering hopeful narratives about belonging in a setting” can work to correct the false idea that identity plays a role in negative experiences.(181)

Read More
1256 Words | 6 Pages

It took 250$ and good deeds to create some doctor like me. Growing up I was the kid who looked at the world with open optimistic eyes. I grew up in a small city called Dora located in Iraq, the middle of three girls. I was born in the late 90s, I have been told that I was born "at the end of the good days". That's when Iraq's political circumstances were not at peace at all, at 2003 another war broke in Iraq.

Read More
807 Words | 4 Pages

Planning Page Template Prompt Question: Discuss the ideas developed by the text creator about the role adversity plays in shaping an individual’s identity. Identity: Tim O’Brien thought of himself as an indisputable hero, the Lone Ranger, he exuded confidence, courageous. Adversity: Tim had been drafted to fight in the Vietnam war, a war of which he didn’t endorse and thought was frivolous and brainless. Over the course of the the story Tim endures a difficult man vs self conflict, can’t decide whether he wants to be seen as a coward if he flees to Canada or see himself as a coward if he allows societal pressures to override his values and beliefs on the war.

Read More
184 Words | 1 Pages

During the Civil many soldiers have been separated from their wives and children since they were compelled to join the Union and Confederate armies. 620,000 American casualties would never see their families since they were forced to join the Union and Confederate armies at a young age. This reminds me of the time my father was enforced to join the army during the Gulf War. During that time, the United States had the right to draft young men for the army. My father would tell me stories of how scared he was to leave his family and would never see them again in his life.

Read More
402 Words | 2 Pages

Here is my Dad, he served in Vietnam. As a kid growing up there was never any real mention of him serving. He kept it to himself. As my sister and I got older my mom would occasionally pull out the projector and the old slides and we would only see the beautiful pictures of Vietnam like the tropical landscapes and the beautiful Buda’s and sacred places of worship and the people who served with him along with some of the Vietnamese people he had befriended. We would only hear the happy stories of course.

Read More
1061 Words | 5 Pages

Brooke Lynch Advanced English 3 Working Draft 2 05 March 2018 Psychological Burdens Soldiers Have During and After War The themes of shame and guilt is constant through this book. Soldiers had feelings of obligation to go to war. While there were many reasons, the most prevalent was the fear of embarrassing either themselves, their parents and family members, or the town they lived in. Running from the draft or not going could make all those around them ashamed of their actions, or embarrassed of associating with them.

Read More
1223 Words | 5 Pages

From the moment I was born I was considered a military brat, I was born in Hawaii at tripler hospital because my mom was in the army and stationed there, my biological father was in the marines. When my mom remarried when I was 7, she married a man who was in the Navy. Everyone thinks being a Military brat just means you know more than other people because you 've been more places and seen more things and you get a lot of stuff you want. This is not true at all. Coming from a military background means you never have stability, you are held to a higher standard than all the other kids, and sometimes it makes you want to be in the military and only focus on that.

Read More
1879 Words | 8 Pages

Tyler had joined the military seven years back, and I hadn’t heard from him since. Normally, a forty-four year old shouldn’t be able to join the military, but due to the lack of soldiers applying, I was able to easily skip the physical and be sent to training. My wife said goodbye, muffling her tears as I drove myself to the military base, my horrific vision getting the job done. As I drove closer to the military base I could hear some sound, despite the small amount of activity in the Nevada desert.

Read More
1288 Words | 6 Pages

not intentional. To prevent this from happening again, step 8 of the Troop Leading Procedure was done and rehearsed by “identifying our weaknesses and practicing essential task((ATTP 5-0.1 p4-1,)” by giving everyone a class on “Arm-and-Hand signal”. My take away from that experience was, even though accidents do happen, they can also be prevented by allowing only individuals who are trained to operate a certain piece of equipment, be the operator for that equipment. As the saying goes, “Life is not fair,” during that whole deployment, the only award that my Fuel section and I received was an AAM.

Read More

More about Personal Narrative: My Military Life

Related Topics

Open Document