 So, I joined the Air Force because I come from a military family. My dad was in the Navy, my uncle was in the Marines, my grandpa was in the Marines, and so was my great-grandfather. And then, not only that, my two oldest big sisters were in, well, they were slash are in the Army. So, they, along with my dad, were definitely a huge influence on me, especially about which branch I was going to join because pretty much all my life, I knew I was going to join the military, I just didn't know which branch. So when my sisters were in, pretty much they told me not to go into the Army, and they told me to go Air Force, especially the second oldest one. So pretty much she was telling me, you know, your guys' base is way better than us because she was stationed at a joint base. She was at JBLM, so she got a taste of both Air Force and the Army. So pretty much she was just telling me, you know, your guys' base is way better, your dorms especially, and even your guys' shopping centers and grocery stores are way better. So thanks to my sisters for helping me out because that's the reason why I joined the Air Force. So I have been in the Air Force for four years this upcoming September, and went super fast. And I am now an E5, which is a Staff Sergeant. So I just put on Staff Sergeant last month. So I've been a Staff Sergeant for a little over a month. So I'm still learning how to actually be a supervisor and, you know, learning how to take on more responsibilities. So it's a learning process, but, you know, I think it's pretty cool. My job is called Administration, and that is 3 Fox Shot 5X1. So back in 2015, when I was a senior, I went to the recruiter's office in April, and then from there on out, I brought my dad with me, and he came with me, we met the recruiter. I gave my recruiter my ASVAP score, and from there my recruiter told me which jobs I was actually able to do because of the score that I got, and administration was actually one of them. And I'm happy that I took my dad with me, and that's definitely something that you guys should do, especially if you're interested in being in the military, you know, bring someone, you know, who has been in the military or who is in the military still because they can help guide you through the process because I know for me it was less stressful and less intimidating when my dad came with me because he was able to help explain a lot of the things that I didn't know. So going back to my job story, I got administration, and pretty much my dad was like, you know, I know the kind of person you are, you know, like, because I like to organize things, I don't know. So my dad was like, you should read into this job because I think you'd like it. And so I read into the job description and I was like, you know, I don't think he's wrong. I think this sounds pretty cool. And so from April of 2015, I signed the papers of my recruiter saying that that was going to be my job. And so fast forward to June of 2015, that's when I graduated, and pretty much I knew what I was going to do when I got into BMT, so that was pretty comforting because I was just chilling most of my summer. So after I graduated in June, I shipped out to boot camp in September. So the whole process went pretty quick for me. But when I looked back at it, it was pretty awesome to know which job I was going to do so that I wasn't going in to the unknown, if you know what I mean. So yes, this job is something that I want to do and what I wanted to do because I don't ever really see myself as a, you know, someone who's actually out on the flight line or someone who would be, let's say, like actually working on mechanical stuff, like a lot of people that I know, and I know it's something that you can learn how to do just by being taught, you know, like on the job training. But that's not something that interests me. So I'm happy that I got my job because it's something, it's geared towards a career that I enjoy more. If I wasn't admin, I definitely would have wanted a medical job because that's always something that I wanted to do. But back in my senior year when I had signed up for admin, there were no medical jobs open and my recruiter told me that I had to wait an additional year for the job that I wanted. And on top of it, I had to retake my ASVAP. So since I already signed up for it, I didn't want to retake it or wait even longer. So I pretty much stuck with admin. I signed up for a six year contract because I knew that being in six years would mean that I get to be an E3 right after graduating from tech school. And so I did that because I knew I was going to stay in anyways. And why not go sign up for six years and get that extra money right off the bat, you know, compared to coming into four years and working your way up there? So that's why I signed up for six years. My tech school was at Keisler Air Force Base, which is in Biloxi, Mississippi. The cool thing about admin is that there's not that many jobs like ours because our tech school is so short. So when I went to tech school in 2016, it was about a month long compared to a lot of people that I know, you know, their tech schools can range from two years to eight months or maybe even four months. So to go to a tech school that's only a month short, that's pretty sweet. And I'm sure if you ask people who are in tech school right now for admin, I think it's been shortened to only a few weeks now. So for me, I enjoyed tech school not only because it was shorter than a lot of other people on base, but because the curriculum is not hard really. And I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had actually gone out of my dorm room. So back in tech school, I stayed in my dorm room pretty much every day after class because I wanted to study and looking back at it, I shouldn't have studied as much because again, it wasn't hard. And I should have taken the opportunity to go out with my friends at the time, you know, my roommate and my other friends from basic. I should have left base and enjoyed that seafood that people always talked about. So if you are in tech school, whether it be a month or longer, definitely just leave your dorm room because I know there's people out there like me who want to study, you know, just give yourself that break, go out there and explore because odds are you're not going to come back to that base admin can go anywhere in the world. We can go stateside. We can go overseas. So if there is a squadron and they have a commander support staff, which is a section of that building that specifically geared towards like my job. If there is that kind of office in the squadron, which 99% of the time there is, then you can go there. Really, we can travel anywhere. A lot of things go into admin. That's why it's kind of hard to explain. So for the most part admin is based in the office and we will deal with a lot of office like jobs. So for example, every day you will send out emails, you will read emails, you will reply to emails, you will answer phone calls, people will come into your office asking you questions, mostly admin related, hence you, and they'll expect you to know these answers or you ask around and try to get those answers. So the main reason why there is an admin is because we work for the commander who is the big boss of the squadron. So it's the highest ranking of all officers and enlisted personnel in the squadron. So you work with them, which is pretty cool. So you work with them, you work with all the other leadership, so other leadership would be other higher ranking people in the squadron. So you just pretty much work with a lot of people who are higher ranking and older than you. So that can be a little weird at first, you know, first coming into the job, you don't expect to work with that, those kind of people. But it's good also because as a young airman, you get to write off the bat, learn what it means to make decisions and how they make decisions. So you're kind of the backbone of the squadron in a way. And so a lot of people will, especially maintainers, they give us nonners, which is like, I don't know, it's like a little tease, basically meaning we're non-essential to the mission. You know, they give, they call us nonners because, you know, we're just in the office. But really we deal with a lot of important paperwork, which a lot of people don't realize. And a lot of it is reviewing EPRs, which is enlisted performance reports, OPRs, which is officer performance reports. And for those, they're kind of like report cards if that makes sense. So every year, every person in the military, whether you're officer or enlisted, you will get a report card. And as admin, it's our job to review it and make sure there's nothing misspelled, that it's the correct information, the person's name is correct. So as you can tell, it can be pretty tedious to be admin. So I guess you can say we deal a lot with like secretary-like duties. And on top of it, we will review memorandums. And I know the list goes on and on, but the main part of being an admin is again to support the commander and help make sure that all their paperwork, that is about to go to them for their review or for them to give to someone even higher ranking than them looks good because you have to make sure you know your job, otherwise you're not gonna make your commander look like they know what they're doing. You know what I mean? You have to be very critical with how you do paperwork because it is your job to make paper look good. But besides the office work, admin can also be postal. I haven't been in postal yet, but I'm going to in a few months, which I'm very excited about because yes, I've learned a lot from being in the office, but I'm ready to step out of the office and you know, actually move around and do stuff with the postal side. So I'm looking forward to that. So if you're a new admin in the Air Force, I would say just remember how, you know like keep in mind that our job is very rare compared to a lot of people, you know? You have security forces, you have maintainers, you have services. So all those different people, they're not really comparison to our job because we're able to, you know, again we work with the higher ups and not a lot of people get the chance to do that. And so just remember that you're given way more opportunities than a lot of other jobs. So don't take that for granted. You know, yeah, people will be teasing you, you know, calling you an honor, but you know, people don't mean that. Just remember that your job is very beneficial. You'll get to travel around a lot because for admin, you will get to move around the base at least every year or two. You know, you'll get to move around to different squadrons so that you can get more experience. So like for example, I was in a main at squadron, now I'm in a weather squadron. So there's a lot of ups and downs to every job, but just remember that you get to have a lot of opportunities from working with higher ups. You get to travel a lot more than other jobs. And you know, you just, you get to have more time to yourself. You get to go to school. You can volunteer if that's what you want to do. So just remember, all jobs can suck, but this job in specific, just remember, like it's one of the few jobs that a lot of people in the Air Force would want to have.