The Military Option: Military First, Life Later

I will put a disclaimer on this post this post is not political. It is meant to serve as another option to college, trade life, or life in general. Take it or leave it.

The military is another option to college. Once you serve a certain number of years part or most of your college education is paid for through the GI Bill. In addition, the military can train recruits for the trades, aviation, and medical fields. The best part? Training and most of the fees are paid for. A lot of my juniors shy away from the military option because the first thing that pops into peoples minds is "I will see war." 

While its true at any given time, a conflict could happen the chances are low that a person depending on where they serve will see active combat. Even if you are deployed, depending on your role you may be able to attend classes via online. My graduate school Grand Canyon University offers virtual courses and one of the students in my doctoral residencies was active duty and deployed in Afghanistan. While doctoral residencies are meant to be in person, he was able to participate by ZOOMing into class and as far as I know he passed.

The military offers courses on base. Having lived around the military bases in North Carolina, I know that the community colleges, local universities, and even others set up courses for our military personnel to attend. I know a few who took advantage of this route and the good thing for spouses, they could attend these classes at reduced rates. 

Getting back to the military option, I highly suggest that if you can not afford to go to college or civilian life think about getting a job while in the military.  I have friends who were Marines and now serve as commercial airline pilots. The same for friends who were in the army who now are truck drivers or engineers with one of the nuclear plants in the country.

My dad served in Vietnam and while he did not finish college, he did learn clerical and business skills while serving in the Navy. Those skills transferred over to civilian life and he went into the trades as a HVAC salesman and technician. He made more in that field than my mom ever did as a teacher with a Master's degree. 

The military also allows the opportunity to grow in the legal field. There are so many options and some stay in the military until they are able to recover. In fact, there is nothing wrong with the military as an alternative to college, trades, or civilian life.

Just another route to think about.