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<blockquote data-quote="EricNoah" data-source="post: 1391368" data-attributes="member: 4">Former West Point Cadet here (note I didn't say West Point graduate!).&nbsp; The switch from civilian life to military life, for me, was an enormous and unexpected culture shock.&nbsp; I was so lured by the promise of a &quot;free&quot; high-quality education that I really didn't take into consideration a lot of other factors that, in hindsight, should have been obvious.&nbsp; I was a gymnast yet I did not enjoy competetive team sports like football or basketball, but in many ways the military is like being on such a team.&nbsp; I was 17 years old and had never really spent much time away from home before, and here I was moving halfway across the country.&nbsp; You will spend a lot of time having many of your personality traits (even some that you like about yourself) broken down and &quot;beaten&quot; out of you so that you conform.&nbsp; Stuff like that.&nbsp; Needless to say I didn't find that to my liking.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />&nbsp; It wasn't for me, and it's not for everyone, but it may well be an environment that you can either tolerate or actually thrive in.&nbsp; (BTW, there were some former enlisted men there and they absolutely hated it -- it was much more &quot;bull&quot; than in the &quot;real army&quot; as one guy put it.)At first you will have zero time to yourself.&nbsp; On the other hand, I met some neat people there, so it seems likely that if you can find some spare time you'll find some gamers.&nbsp; If you can find someone who's been through the whole thing maybe they can give you an idea of what a &quot;typical day&quot; is like beyond the first summer of basic training, and that might give you some better motivation to go for it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="EricNoah, post: 1391368, member: 4"] Former West Point Cadet here (note I didn't say West Point graduate!). The switch from civilian life to military life, for me, was an enormous and unexpected culture shock. I was so lured by the promise of a "free" high-quality education that I really didn't take into consideration a lot of other factors that, in hindsight, should have been obvious. I was a gymnast yet I did not enjoy competetive team sports like football or basketball, but in many ways the military is like being on such a team. I was 17 years old and had never really spent much time away from home before, and here I was moving halfway across the country. You will spend a lot of time having many of your personality traits (even some that you like about yourself) broken down and "beaten" out of you so that you conform. Stuff like that. Needless to say I didn't find that to my liking. :) It wasn't for me, and it's not for everyone, but it may well be an environment that you can either tolerate or actually thrive in. (BTW, there were some former enlisted men there and they absolutely hated it -- it was much more "bull" than in the "real army" as one guy put it.) At first you will have zero time to yourself. On the other hand, I met some neat people there, so it seems likely that if you can find some spare time you'll find some gamers. If you can find someone who's been through the whole thing maybe they can give you an idea of what a "typical day" is like beyond the first summer of basic training, and that might give you some better motivation to go for it. [/QUOTE]

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