My name is Carl and I joined the National Guard and ROTC my 2nd semester sophomore year. I graduated from LTC, and am now a senior that will be graduating this December.

The reason I personally joined was because of personal fulfillment, I didn't really feel like I was having a large impact on those around me, so I wanted to join the Guard to add some purpose to my life. So far, I definitely have recieved that sense of fulfillment and have had some awesome times running around in the woods, shooting a bunch of stuff and getting paid for it.

However, some of the things that the recruiters don't really tell you is the amount of work that needs to be put in. Yes, the credits add up to about 4, but really, most cadets spend about 10-15 hours a week just on preperations, studying and communicating with others, and it can be very daunting at times. Also, you're going to come across a lot of stuff that makes no sense at all. If you're prior service or have been to basic, you'll be able to spot the discrepencies very easily, and can be very demotivating when it comes time to complete some extremely repetitive stuff.

So just as a heads up, there is definitely a difference between the 'real army' and 'cadet land' and the key is to not get caught up in all the nonsensical things that you have to do sometimes. Particularly when you're given an order two days before you're supposed to plan an event, it can be very difficult.

All in all, at times you can get pretty demotivated when others set you up for failure, but I know that 5-10 years down the road, when I'm in the workforce, I'll be able to adapt quicker to new environments than my peers solely because of my experience in ROTC.