@OmSigDAVID,
OmSigDavid, The logical answer would seem to be, 'No', but truth be told it WAS right for me.
I was very rebellious and undisciplined. In my sophmore year I flunked all my subjects --only to have the guidance counselor negotiate their change to just-barely-passing in return for my promise to do better the following year.
That was an agreement which I promptly broke, skipping school over eighty times and turning in virtually no homework in my junior year.
My despairing parents, both high school dropouts themselves, didn't know what to do. Rather than returning to repeat my Junior year I proposed to my parents that I join the six month reserve (ie. six months active duty followed by six and a half years of reserve duty). My father agreed to sign for me but only with the proviso that I go in the military for three years active. While I was mulling this over two friends signed up for the Marine Corps (four year enlistments) and urged me to join them in the 'Buddy System'. I did.
The Marine Corps is a high risk--high gain proposition for acting out adolescents. If they are too stubborn or anti-authoritarian it can lead to boot camp washouts, bad discharges, personal humiliation, and a downward spiral. For others like me, it can be a character building experience --or at least it 'grows you up' fast!
In the Marines I read voraciously, took high school and first year college level GED's, did well on the college entrance boards, and managed to convince a college to take a chance on me. four years after finishing undergraduate school I completed a Master of Social Work degree and subsequently had a reasonably successful, thirty-five year, career in the mental health field.
), NOT exaggerating....this is part of an actual conversation between my daughter and her friend (thank god it was the friend who was speaking - I just turned up my ipod so I could refrain from asking her to please, please, PLEASE stop saying, 'like' (which I do ask my daughter and son to try to be cognizant of all the time- but I have the right to do that - they're my own kids).
