R.O.O.T. Webzine

I’ve been idle for a bit.  After being told by my best friend that perhaps my dreams were a little too big for me to achieve, naturally, I’ve been upset by those remarks.  I’ve worked hard to get into the Corps and now, of course, I’m seeing the results of my hard work.

Today was my first day back at the Corps training sessions, the last one I went to was last month, so today, I was happy to be there.  I saw one or two faces from the last session, but the others were brand new.  Two Recruiting Sub-Stations (RSS) were there, San Juan (my RSS) and Ponce (a city at the south of the island) San Juan’s was the largest group of Poolee’s.  Today was also a very special day for the Poolees, the only Puerto Rican Major for the United States Marine Corps was there, to see how we trained, as well as to “clean house” .

Starting the day I was so nervous I wanted to throw up, thinking I had to impress the Major of the Marine Corps, who came all the way to Puerto Rico, from Virginia (U.S.) to see how his Puerto Rican recruits were doing.  I thought about many things while I was in the car riding there, I thought about how I should calm my nerves so I wouldn’t throw up before doing any of the work outs, and how I should regulate my breathing so I could concentrate better.

I’ve been working out every day, and trying to improve my physical performance, I’ve been trying so hard, and for so long, today, I saw the results of my hard work.  As you know I am 30 years old, there were five other girls, ages ranging from 17 to 23, they all looked young and healthy, as I did, neither one of them would have guessed my age, you know, since I look so young! So, as we were all running, I made sure two of them kept going, telling them how to breathe and picture themselves at the end, they all struggled, as I kept on going.  Then we reached the half point, where a shout of the time was given, “6:30!” that’s when I hauled ass around the corner, took the curve with a dash, passed five male Poolee’s left all my girls behind and passed the Major of the Corps who was telling another Poolee “if you want to be a Marine, I’m the guy you have to impress, right now you’re not impressing me” hearing that, I hauled ass even harder I made it to the end zone in 14:14, that’s 14mintues and 14seconds! Once I got there I screamed “GIVE ME SOME WATER!” one other Poolee handed me his unfinished bottle of water with a scared look on his face, before I know it, the Major tapped me on the shoulder and told me “GOOD EFFOR!” and gave me a high five! The Gunnery Sergeant looked over at me and said “Good Job!” and winked at me, for I, a mere applicant of the Marine Corps, had just kicked ass!!!!!! Kicked tail, beat five girls, who were younger than me, as well as five boys who were left eating my dust!!!!

My total score:
Run Time: 2 Miles: 14:14
Crunches: 73 in two minutes
Hang (modified pull ups for us girls) 26 seconds holding

TEXT: LaShawn Pagan