Chapter 1: Living a Sheltered Life
I grew up in a Christian church called Iglesia Ni Cristo (translated “Church of Christ”). I was an active Christian, bible studies, choir member, helped out with church events, studied to become a teacher of the bible for children. My faith was strong, had great friends and a boyfriend that loved me enough to spend his life with me. I lived in a small world.
A small world where I was taught that it wasn’t lady like to do certain things. That I had to be polite and not say exactly what was on my mind because it was considered rude. I was ultimately girly-worked at New York and company, loved accessories and wore a lot of dresses and etc. My best friend who became my boyfriend from studying the bible became someone I wanted to spend my life with. He was in the Army Reserve and had moved to California to be with a previous girlfriend. He was my study buddy for teacher’s class. We became the best of friends and it grew into a love that was so deep. He was my soul mate and no matter what, he was always by my side regardless of how much I broke his heart. But that’s another story for a different time.
We wanted a future together. But how could we, I was still living under my parents’ roof and was still in school and I really didn’t know what I wanted. I was bored with school and I loved English but I didn’t know where to start. I honestly got bored of school and I wanted a challenge. So I really had to think about which military branch I really wanted to join. I couldn’t do the Army, because he was already in it. I didn’t want to join the navy and be stuck on a boat. And the marines was just too hardcore for me. The smart way was Air Force-so I looked up a recruiter and signed up, and worked on what I needed to to qualify. My recruiter was a female African American and she was located on Mckee Road. I had kept all things a secret. Maybe it was wrong to but I didn’t want to have to deal with objections of why I shouldn’t join. The process was tedious and it really opened up my eyes to something totally new. I was so use to being ladylike, timid, shy what I was use to. But when I did my exam to inprocess there was no shyness. That went out the window. If you had to be naked, you had to be naked. There was a lot of waiting.
Once I had passed everything and had gotten the dates of bootcamp, that’s when I told my mom. And she cried so much. She was stressed out. I don’t know if it was because she was worried that I wouldn’t be capable of being in the military or if she was going to really miss me. I honestly think it was both. My family definitely was shocked when I shared the news. The only folks in my family who were in the military have been men. No women. But making the choice to join regardless of what my reason was back then was, it has changed my life forever...
The summer of JUNE 2006
was a hot summer in bootcamp. Texas was extremely hot and I remember arriving and constantly being yelled at. If this person wasn’t yelling, that person was yelling. But I was in a daze I didn’t really pay attention to what they were saying I could see them speaking but didn’t hear anything. I know that it was late at night, sitting in line and marching to our dorms still in civilian attire. The next 6 weeks I was there changed me forever. You learn how to work under a lot of stress (someone yelling at you). You always want to blend in and not stand out because if you do, its not a good thing. I honestly tried my best to blend in. However, it was hard to because I was short, my name was San Jose and I was from San Jose and my uniform always looked really big on me. I remember my Instructor coming up to me as I stayed at attention near my locker. He says “Airman San joezie,” he lifts up my caller “why are these so big on you? Is this the smallest size?” I was like, “yes sir, this is the smallest size”.
So I stuck out, but my proudest moment that I will never forget! It was during Warrior Week (a week in tents outdoors) we had to do an obstacle course. There were two walls to climb-one was a short easy one, and the other was way taller and difficult. I don’t know how I ended up in that line, but gee golly I did it! And the instructor who was keeping an eye on us was saying positive things but yelling. I felt so proud of myself and determined. Bootcamp changed my life, testing what I was capable of. And with determination and faith was able to pass all the weeks and graduate bootcamp. Who would have thought me, this girly girl from San Jose California would have made it? When I saw my parents at graduation that’s when I knew that I was capable of anything I could set my mind to...Tech school followed after that and my boyfriend was deployed which put a toll on me and my studies. I kept worrying about how he was and if he was going to be okay. Communication was hard, distant relationship with him was hard. By the time i knew it, I was assigned my first base near Spokane, WA.