The plane ride was long as hell, I didn't sleep the whole ride there; I don't like planes. We get on another bus and head to the training facility.

When we get there, the man on the bus who is in charge of us told us to get our enlistment packets out and be ready to go through the orientation stage.

"Please come out of the bus and stand in one line," said the man again. We all did and one by one we turned in our enlistment packets. "Please move on to the next station," said the women pointing to a building with a big red cross on it.

As we went through the building I received dental and medical exams. A nurse gave me a couple of shots she said I was missing. She squeezed my butt when I was leaving, I was surprised. Paige always thought my butt was cute; it was weird having someone else touch it. I walked away without giving her a look back.

There was a long table full of bags that had the issued clothing.

I walk up to the table and the guy standing behind it asks, "Shirt size?"

"Medium,"

"Pants?"

"Medium," he handed me a couple of bags and I walked to the next station. The haircuts. I already had short hair but it is "to long" by military standards. I remember when I first met Paige; I had long hair that tickled the back of my neck if I wasn't careful.

Sitting in the chair made me nervous, I like my hair and I loved when Paige would pass her fingers through it. It was a bittersweet moment when the little brown tuffs of hair fall from my shoulders and onto the floor.

All that was left to do was determine where our paycheck was going. I filled out the form they gave everybody and headed off to my assigned bunker.

…

No sooner did I walk through the door of the bunker then I hear "James Stevens!" coming from the other side of the building.

"Hi Kevin, how are you?" I said hoping he would walk away when he heard the sarcasm in my voice.

"Well honestly not much has changed since I saw you a couple of hours ago on the bus."

"That's great," I say, I wasn't really listening to him, I was too busy looking for a free bed. They all looked taken.

"The bunk under mine is the only one empty right now. So I guess you're stuck with me for a while huh?" Kevin said leaning into my ear. Kevin leads me to the bunk bed that would soon be his and mine. I throw my stuff on the bed and start putting stuff in the foot locker next to the bed because Kevin has already put his things in the locker at the foot of the bed.

"So, James. Tell me more about this Paige chick."

"She's not some chick. She's my fiancé." Kevin and I spent the rest of the evening talking about ourselves to one another.

"Well it sounds like you have a pretty good life at home. What are you doing here?" asked Kevin when we were leaving the mess hall.

"I want to be a Navy Seal." I replied.

"Wow, kid. That's some intense work. I wish you luck." He says.

"Kevin, this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship." I told Kevin at the end of the night.

…

The trumpet rang in my ear. I didn't wake me, but it still startled me. I jumped out of bed and stood up next to my bed as Sergeant Reyes walked up and down the aisle between the beds.

"Today ladies, is when you leave everything you left back home, at home. Your mind is always alert; it must never wander from the task at hand. Today is the first day of your training." His voice rang through the bunker like he was talking into a microphone. "Hurry up and get dressed and be outside in ten minutes." He barked out. Nobody moved until the Sergeant was out of the room. Once he was out I ran to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Everyone spilt into their own little routine, most of the guys ran to shower, bad idea, observing the ciaos I put on a copy of yesterdays cloths.

It wasn't even ten minutes when the bell rang, I push myself through the door and we all stand outside in alphabetical order. Eric and I are at the closest to the Sergeant.

The Sergeant told us to get in four lines. We did, and I was up in the front.

"In 9 weeks you will have a timed 1.5 mile run and a timed 500 yard swim. In addition to that, you will have two minutes do to as many pushups you can, and two minutes to do as many curl ups as you can. That training starts today. Now, we are going to run 4 miles today, but by the end of your training you should be able to run 8 miles nonstop. 1 mile is half way around the compound. We will be running two times around the compound today. If you need to stop, don't. The object of this training is to remain as a group, do not break formation. If you do, that is one more mile today." he got on a golf cart and yelled, "Let's Move!"

Running is a good hobby of mine, in high school I could run a mile in about a minute. This synchronized running was hard, though. You had to stay in formation and you couldn't run as fast as you wanted to. Everyone was communicating to the front weather we needed to slow down or speed up.

About two miles in people started to tell us to slow down, and we were already at a crawl. I looked over my shoulder and yell "Come on, guys. Speed up!" everyone looked at me and groaned.

"Yeah, guys we need to speed up. We are supposed to be running, not jogging." Eric said to back me up. Eric and I started to pick up the pace and no wanting to run another mile everyone followed.

When we finished we were all sweaty, and tired.

"Good work ladies," Sergeant Reyes says when we come to the point where we started. "Now go to the training course on the other side of the compound. You have half an hour to get there."

Eric and I run to the course. When we get there I see all the things my dad has ever talked about. The climbing wall, the propel wall, the crawler, tires, and some I didn't recognize.

"Hey James Stevens!" yelled a familiar voice from behind me.

"Hello Kevin," I say.

"How's your training going?"

"Good, Kevin this is my bunker-mate Eric," I gestured to Eric. They shake hands, we stand here talking for a little bit and Kevin excuses himself.

"Okay, bunker 30, pay attention. You are going to do the obstacle course four times today, you have 2 hours to do this, but by the end of the next nine months you should be able to complete the course 12 times in 45 minutes."

…

The course wore me out. I could barely walk after what they put us through. I remember them yelling at us as we ran through the course.

First was the wall. We had to scale a 25 foot wall using only a rope. I made it up that easily; it was the obstacle on top I wasn't expecting. We had to walk on a piece of wood maybe 5 inches wide and 50 feet across, with nothing to hold us up or catch us if we fell. I have never had good balance, but my adrenaline was pumping and I cross "the beam" in one minute. I knew because they would yell out our time when we finished the obstacles.

After "the Beam" we had to propel down the wall, which was a piece of cake. The tires were next. We had to keep our knees high; if they dropped we had to start over. Blew through that quick, about 15 seconds. I ran to the crawler.

The crawler was a series of sticks, poking out of the ground with barbed wire connecting each stick to the next, making a grid pattern on top. You had to crawl on your stomach and use both your knees and elbows to move yourself forward. I remembered being little and crawling all over the house with my dad. I crawled the 30 feet in a little over half a minute.

What came next was unfamiliar to me; the sergeant was telling us what to do as we went along the course.

When we were done with the obstacle course we had two minutes of pushups and two minutes of curl ups. Then we had to run to the start and do it all over again.

Tomorrow I'm going to be sore. I thought to myself as I was running to the beginning to start all over for the second time.