*** I forgot to make this post live, so it is actually backdated, I should have posted it on the 2nd and I noticed on the 10th that I didn’t make it live ****

In the United States Marine Corps (USMC), there is a practice, almost a tradition that when you arrive at Marine Corps Recruit Depot (either San Diego or Parris Island – known as MCRD), you arrive at night, it adds to the shock and awe, it is part of the mystic and it can really scare the sh*t out of you. When the bus arrives, it is dark, almost as if the depot is abandoned, then once the bus stops out of nowhere a group of Drill Instructors (DIs) ascend on the bus and organized chaos starts and life, as I knew, is stopped.

To make a long story short, 31 years ago today, I stepped on those infamous yellow footprints, and my life as a United States Marine started, forever changing me and my life. Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful).