Joining the Air Force has helped me in many ways. It has increased my levels of  self-confidence, independence, and overall responsibility about things. Enlisting has also given  me the opportunity to travel. I probably would never have made it to any of the places that the  military has taken me. I spent the majority of summer 1998 in Naples, Italy.  What 21 year old  has money to go there? (and borrowing from mommy & daddy don't count). Going to Italy was a  trip. I got to experience being in a culture so totally different than I'm used to. I was around more  than just the Italians too. I was working in a NATO operation, so I was working around many  different people of various ethnic backgrounds. 

When I got home from Italy, knowing I was planning to leave when the summer came, my coworkers and friends started trying to convince me to re-enlist and stay in Alaska... well, the  re-enlisting part worked, but I'm not staying (Not that I didn't want to, or didn't try to stay here).  I'm now stationed at Bolling AFB, Washington, DC. I think the best part of this assignment, outside of the fact that I'm working as a Network Systems Administrator, is the  fact that I get to visit all the great places that DC has. 

I've spent the past 3 years here in Alaska, and loved almost every minute of it. I didn't care for  my first winter, adjusting to the 20 hours of darkness and the -50°F temperatures. I had enlisted  out of Michigan (the Upper Peninsula - UP), so I was no stranger to cold weather before  Alaska... but Alaska has a totally different winter than Michigan does. For instance, in Michigan, you can actually throw a snowball, where as if you tried to throw one in Alaska, it would either have to be a chunk of ice, or handful of powdered snow. Us "Yoopers" are used to the  lake-effect snow that blows off of Lake Superior... There isn't a lot of wind in Alaska - just biting  cold.