Essay Eighteen: Age 21, 1967 Joining the U.S. M.C., boot camp at Parris Island, the first year and Camp Pendleton

How to get a life started; how to build a better future: that was the problem I was dealing with. It was a rain cloud that hovered over me each day, as I lived my quite ordinary life. The work at Palm Harbor Hospital was interesting, and the people I worked with were a very likeable group. But the passing of days with things just the same bothered me greatly. How could I get ahead in life if things stayed the same? The thought that perhaps years would pass and I would still be working there in a low level job troubled me. Surely I was meant to be more than that. Of course I was young and had the years ahead of me. I should not have worried. Mrs. Berecki, a small Italian woman who must have been in her mid fifties encouraged me, saying to me "Join the soirvice!: