 Hey everyone, I just went to Mepps recently and I wanted to share a few tips with you to help you have a better Mepps experience. So my first tip is going to be pack lightly. All it is is you are wearing your clothes the day you go up. Then you have an overnight at the hotel, you're wearing another outfit the next day and you go home. So you don't need more than what you're wearing for two days. I honestly would suggest wearing the same pair of jeans both days. If you're gonna take two jeans, that's fine, but make sure they work with the same pair of shoes because there's no reason to pack more than one pair of shoes. Do not bring your ASVAB or study guide with you because it is way too bulky and it just gets in the way. Hopefully you have set aside a few weeks to study and prepare before. The next thing with the jeans or the pants that you are wearing, make sure that they have deep pockets because we cannot carry anything around with us, not our purse. Guys, you might be able to take your wallet. I think you can. Our backpacks get left. They all get left in a locked closet when we very first enter the MEP station. So we have to carry around our driver's license and our social security card. And ladies, if we don't have our purse, we don't have anywhere else to put it. A lot of times our pockets are more shallow. So make sure before you go, you have deep pockets that you're social and driver's license can fit in because you don't just wanna carry it around all day. You're gonna set it down. You're gonna forget it somewhere. You wanna be able to fit it in your pockets, not have to worry about it, but then have access to it when you need it. The next part of this is bring a light jacket. You don't know what the weather is gonna be like and even if the weather might be nice, it might be really cold inside the MEP station. So you wanna be able to have a jacket. Yes, we can wear our jackets throughout the day. Even when we put our stuff in the locked closet, you can still keep a jacket on you. You want it to be light because obviously you don't wanna be carrying around a bulky jacket if you end up taking it off. You can just throw it over your arm, tie it around your waist, whatever you wanna do. This next tip is for my glasses and contact wearers. I am just gonna give you some information and you can choose what the best option is for you. So typically I wear contacts like I am right now, but when we go to MEPs, we have to do a vision test and they're gonna have you do the test with your contacts or glasses on and then a second one with your contacts or glasses off. It only takes like 30 seconds to do the test because you just look in the machine and you read the letters and you read down to the line that you can't see anymore and then you do the same thing with your glasses on, with your glasses off. So typically I wear contacts and I'm like, well, I don't wanna have to take contacts in solution and take my contacts out to do that. I'm just gonna wear glasses because it's easier to take on and off. But something to think about right now is it's during the COVID time. So we're having to wear a mask over our mouth and our nose. Glasses wears, you already know where I'm going with this. You have glasses on and it is going to fog up all day. I would suggest taking your contact case with solution and just keeping that in your pocket. They're gonna let you do that. Tip number three is do not bring any weapons at all. Don't have any weapons on your person. Don't have them in your purse. Don't have them in your backpack. Guns, pepper spray or mace, tasers and pocket knives. Even the little credit card knives, I hadn't even heard of anything like that before but my recruiter and the guy giving the briefing, both mentioned those because I guess there have been a lot of people coming in with those or forgetting to mention it before they go in because it's just like a little credit card, right? But that still counts as a weapon. Look over all the stuff you have. If you're someone who typically has one, take everything out before you even leave to go to your recruiter's office to go to meps because if you get all the way there and it might be close to you, it might be far away. Like for me, I had to go two hours away and getting all the way up there, some people might not be so lenient and if you have it on you, they can send you right back and you're gonna have to wait and get another meps time to go and it would just really suck to do that. So don't bring any weapons. The next tip seems like common sense but I feel like people still need to be told. Listen when you're at meps. It doesn't seem like it's that hard but there were so many people who didn't and it blows my mind. So don't be that person who's gonna get in trouble for stupid stuff because you're not listening. We all have to go through this process because we're trying to join the military, right? And if you can't listen to simple rules at the very beginning of your journey, this is not the right career path for you. And if you want to make your meps experience as easy as possible, follow the rules. One of the rules being listen. Not that hard, keep it in mind if you're somebody who has trouble with it. And the last tip that I have for you guys today is designate someone to take pictures and videos when you are going to swear in at meps because they don't have anybody there to do that. Unfortunately, I wish they did because this is a really special moment for us, you know? Like we want to share this with our friends and family because now again during COVID times you can't bring friends and family in because typically they would be the ones who would be able to record for you but now nobody can come in to watch us, it's just us. So I actually had trouble getting somebody to do this for me, I asked people at the front desk and they said, talk to the Air Force people. So I go talk to the Air Force people. I said, hey, can we get somebody to record me whenever I go to swear in later? And they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll get someone. Okay, great. So then it got closer to time to swear in. I talked to the front desk people again. I was like, hey, I talked to the Air Force people. They said they'd get someone but they didn't like, can you guys get someone? And then they're like, oh, we'll get someone. I go into the room to go swear in and I had my phone in my pocket and the lady was teaching us how to stand at attention and parade rest. And then when she was done, she's like, and stand like that, do not move till the commander comes in. And I had to be like, and I like pointed at my phone. She's like, why do you have your phone in here? And I was like, they said they'd get someone to record. Who said it? I'm like, everyone, who's gonna record? I don't know. Everyone just keeps telling me they'll get someone but no one did. I should have gone to the Air Force guys and specifically said, can you record for me? Because then when you designate someone to do it like you know they're doing it, they know they're doing it and makes it a whole lot easier because there was so much back and forth. And then when I went to go swear in I almost didn't have anybody record. So, thankfully, one of the Air Force guys came in and recorded for me. Maybe you could even mention it to your branch whenever you're checking in with them earlier that day saying, hey, I need to make sure I have somebody to record today. I've heard of people who have had issues getting someone to do it, like can you do it for me? Something like that. Just keep asking until you get someone to do it because it really sucks to not have it. Because I was hoping he was gonna record me and there were two other guys swearing in with me at the same time. I was gonna send them that video but then he ended up only recording me and I felt bad. I couldn't give those guys that video but designate someone to take pictures and videos for you whenever you were going to swear in. And I hope these tips helped you guys. Good luck to those of you who are getting ready to go into meps. It is really not that bad. I've made videos of my experience so if you guys haven't seen them yet, be sure to check them out. I've talked about my day one and day two experience and the medical experience and the exercises that you do and everything like that. But if you have any further questions about anything about joining the Air Force process, ask me in the comment section below because I am documenting everything as I go through this and if you have any specific questions, just feel free to ask.