I think the five years I spent as an Air Traffic Controller in the Navy changed me the most. I am definitely on the introvert AB personality side of things. However, I was far more reserved when I was as a teenager. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love talking to others, but once a certain amount of interacting takes place I get burnt out and have to withdraw a little bit to recharge my batteries.

I think these are good traits, but they are also pretty bad in the job that I entered in the Navy. I aired on the side of anxiety when I first started controlling. The introvert side of myself always was assuming that pilots knew everything I did, but that was no where remotely close to reality. In this demanding field you must key up-turn on your transmitter and talk to an aircraft- for nearly anything.

My first controlling experience was doing Ground Control, which is the position responsible for coordinating all movement on an airfield past the ramps(vehicles, men, equipment, and, of course, aircraft). You coordinate what taxiways(roads) an aircraft must take to ensure that one aircraft on their way to the runway to takeoff doesn't interfere with someone coming back from a mission trying to park on the ramp. Anyway, I had a knack of never talking unless it was immediate so and so wants to cross a certain runway. If two aircraft on the ground were pointed right at each other I figured aircraft x will give way to aircraft y. Needless to say, my first critique of my performance was pretty horrendous. I then had it beaten into me you need to take control of the airfield and that every pilot was an idiot. I became more confident with more time on position and eventually built up greater and greater confidence in my abilities.

This confidence has led me to tackle many things I normally wouldn't have dreamed of doing when I first enlisted. College, athletics, and even as a Sailor that I started to really apply myself. I accepted a tour to Iraq doing detainee operations and worked with the Army for a year. If you don't have an air of confidence to the way you carry yourself it will targeted and the detainees will target you because they perceive you as weak.

I also feel like I wouldn't be a very competitive person, but being more confident has led me to try many different things. I have done triathlons, cycling, rock climbing, scuba diving, just to name a few. I wouldn't have dreamed of doing these things when I was in High School even though I participated in football, I wouldn't ever consider myself the athletic.

Even more importantly, I was never really a stellar student when I was in high school. I didn't even bother to take the ACT or the SAT because my perception of school was that you had to be top 10% of your class in order to even make the cut for acceptance. Tying back into my job, we always had to study for a new position or learning whatever revisions came out in the world of Air Traffic Control. I developed much better study habits while going through air traffic control school. My test scores ended up reflecting this, and I became confident that I could get out and go back to school to get up to speed with everyone else in my age group, nearly everyone I knew in school now holds a degree. I never would have dreamed that I would ever be in the top ten percent of anything related to academics when I graduated in 2005, yet this summer I got a letter saying I was in the top 10% of my community college(Normandale), I know what you are thinking... it's community college...., but nonetheless I thought it was pretty cool considering I never made honor roll in high school and now I am getting letters that I made the Deans list every semester.

I know this is going to sound corny, but without the Navy, and more importantly everyone else that I controlled with, I wouldn't be at this University right now writing this. I would probably be working in a blue collar job, without ever aspiring to go back to school. I think a Grand Narrative is signing up for the Navy and this set the tone for becoming, a far more interesting person than what I thought I was 6 years ago. Ok, now I feel old, but I digress.