Need for a strong family

Career path

Right now I'm trying to get into an officer program. I'll find out in September the results. The intelligence field, working with the Office of Naval Intelligence, Defense Intelligence Agency or other intelligence agencies, that's where I would like to go. If I decide to get out of the Navy, I can use the clearance that I have now instead of - say, the FBI, if I want to do the FBI--instead of their spending $15,000 or however much money they're going to spend to do background searches and do all their checks. I have a secret clearance already that the Navy provided for me and that would pretty much open two doors for me. I could do security. Working with radar companies. Raytheon is a very big radar company out there with a very nice starting salary. I wouldn't mind doing that if I decided to get out. If I stay in, I would like to choose the officer's path and see how far up I could actually advance.

The Navy offers you a lot of different wide varieties of things to do. For me, my interest and what I'm interested in, I see the Officer's community as being what I want to do, being in a leadership role, mentoring to junior sailors. That's what I would like to do because I - I think that I can, you know, motivate or give them something - some type of incentive to work for. It shouldn't have to be, you know, hey you, get down there and clean this bilge or sweep this peaway or - you know, like before, communication and confidence are the two main principles that you have to apply.

I learned that from my grandmother. I got all my confidence from my grandmother. She told me that if I don't believe in myself, who is? You know. So I had to believe in myself for me to excel. If it wasn't for her, I don't believe I'd be here now doing what I'm doing now. So my grandmother played a very important role in my life.

If I had to tell students or give them some type of advice, I would tell them to stay in school pretty much. That - that's a big one. But everyone says that, stay in school. Never give up. Always know that there is one step that you can climb higher than where you are now. You don't have to stay at one level. You can always move up a little bit even if it's, you know, a inch at a time. You can always move up. At the same time you can fall down if you let yourself, but I always try to climb and make myself better than what I am.