Welcome To My Page!

Greetings and humble salutations! Obviously since this is a blog let me introduce myself. My name is Anita and I am a Surface Warfare Officer in the United States Navy⚓. I received my Bachelors degree in Biology and commission from Florida A&M University. The reason why I wanted to start a blog was to try something new. Not many people know what military people do besides war and tons of deployments (which is waaaaaaayyyyy left of what we do on the regular). This also will share my fun adventures and experiences as an African American female Officer. Plus this was one of my New Year's Resolutions 😀 (yea I know I'm late but better late then never right)

Why the Military?

Well that's pretty simple. Way back in high school I found out while I was in NJROTC that I could get a full ride scholarship to college and all I have to do is give the military time back once I graduate. If that's not convincing enough here's a few more reasons:

• Full Ride
• Paid a stipend to go to school
• Guaranteed  job once you graduate (SALARY starts the day you graduate)
• EXPERIENCE

Now being on an ROTC scholarship and trying to live a normal college life was not easy at all. It was a job on top of the part time job I held when I worked on campus and trying to maintain a stable class schedule along with the classes you are required to take for being in the program. But if you met the bare minimums you still could get a commission. i.e maintain a 2.5 GPA, pass the official fitness test, and stay out of trouble. So if you can do that with no problems then.....Why not?

What is an Officer?

In simple terms a Military Officer is just someone who got their Bachelor's Degree before joining the military. Now there are some special cases but that too much to go over. What most people see with military are Enlisted. They usually are fresh out of high school or individuals who wanted to join the military later in their lives. They may receive their Bachelor's Degree while enlisted but that does not make them an Officer just because they choose to get one (it is a lengthy process to go from Enlisted to Officer) .  Below is a list of Enlisted and Officer Ranks for the Navy.

The Ultimate Move

With being in the military you have to make sacrifices luckily I knew that would happen. In November I did my ship selection on where I wanted to start my Naval career. Navy ROTC prepares you up for this grand day, we call it the draft (more so referring to sports). The top ranking students get the better chances of getting what they want. Long story short I chose to come to California, over 2,000 miles away from home. But I was born here so why not go back as an adult. I was actually cool with picking up my life and moving across the country. 3 weeks after graduation I found myself on a one way trip, 3 bags, a camera, and my laptop and iPad to California. All my other apartment items that I will need later got put into storage. Now lets get on to the fun stuff! My time so far in California😃