Hi friends!

I hope after you see my high school memory, you will be inspired to share yours with me too. So feel free to send me one of your high school pics along with a current pic. Have you changed much? I have.

Here is a high school pic of me in an old yearbook. This was probably my senior year. It was a college info day. I was at the Marine’s recruiting table😂😂😂. Interestingly enough, I did not join the Marine’s.

Photo: Plainview High School Yearbook

However, Petty Officer Trent Miller, a U.S. Armed Forces Recruiter, did a swell job of convincing me to join the United States Navy. Hoorah!

I desperately wanted to be a (JO) in the Navy. In civilian terms that’s a journalist. But that ASVAB exam kicked my butt. It was seriously the most challenging exam I ever took. And I took many, including: the PSAT, the SAT, and the ACT. The ASVAB by far, gave me the most massive migraine imaginable.

My scores didn’t rank high enough for me to choose (JO) which was soul crushing, because I could imagine myself being a reporter in the Navy and working for the The Flagship or the Navy Times, two military newspaper publications. But seriously the exam tested things I was absolutely ignorant about such as; Electronic Information, Automotive and Shop Information, Mechanical Comprehension, and Assembling Objects.

I did the next best thing I could do, I became a culinary specialist in the Navy and earned my $30,000 Navy College Fund.🎓 I have a picture somewhere. I was holding a giant jumbo check like a lotto winner photo. 😂😂😂. I’ll have to look for it and post it at a later time.

So, after I graduated from Plainview High School, in Plainview Texas in May of 2000, I went to bootcamp in Great Lakes, Illinois.

After my graduation from bootcamp, I went to Culinary A School, in San Antonio, Texas at Lackland Airforce Base.

Following Culinary A School, I received orders to the fleet in Norfolk, Virginia. I survived 4 years in the USN from June 11,2000 to June 11,2004 of active duty. I participated in sea trials and was an original plankowner on the USS IWO JIMA (LHD-7), an amphibeous assault ship that carries approximately 3,000+ Marines and Sailors aboard this little “floating city.”

I got married, thus our marital status changed to dual military. And my orders were changed to shore duty. And I worked the other end of my occupation which was hotel management. Although military jargon describes these facilities as, barracks (not hotels). These barracks are typically for active duty stationed personnel. Mostly shore duty personnel.

Soon after I became pregnant with my first daughter in 2000 ( I was 19 years of age). I delivered her at Portsmouth Naval Hospital. Virginia.

I got married. (That was my first marriage).

I got pregnant again later with my second daughter (I was 21). Once again I delivered my baby girl at Portsmouth Naval Hospital.

Unfortunately for me, my first husband (now ex) divorced me, and abandoned his two daughters. ☮of💩!(My daughter’s gave me permission to put that, sorry, not sorry!)

Then at age 22 I received an honorable discharge. Afterwards, I went back to my hometown as a sorrowful and brokenhearted divorced mother, of two little princesses. I tried to put the pieces of my life together again.

They are the most amazing little girls in the world, so it wasn’t too hard to be happy.

It has been a bumpy ride, but we’re still going.

Here is me now!💋 See pic below. Life has been rough for me. Pero like mi papi taught me; sigo adelante!

Post your pics below in the comments or share them on my Facebook page with the #Reminiscing.

Contact me at either of these emails:

dstatam63@bethelu.edu

candidchicana@gmail.com