 Run, run, run, run, drop, it's good. Knock him out. Knock him out. There you go. W.S. soil you got to go. Faster, let's go. Once I go back to my unit, everything serves as a mentoring opportunity. No matter where I learn in the Army, whether it be at a school or at the best warrior competition, everything serves as an opportunity to share that information to lower enlisted. My platoon sergeant is very proud to have not only one of his soldiers represent the unit, but having a female represent Wisconsin, as a matter of fact, in the best warrior competition. So all of my efforts here kind of directly correlate to him because he pushed me along the way. My motivation to join was first at the battalion level, we had our competition, and I just wanted to take what I learned as a newly promoted NCO and try and excel at my very best. This one is extremely harder than the last two that I've been a part of, only because I'm up against the very best of every single state. And the differences between the past competitions and this competition are pretty much just narrowed down to the events that we've competed against or in because I've never done a swim test before for the Army, so that proved equally challenging for me but not only my counterparts in the competition. From when I was little, very little, I was always competitive and the Army has brought that out in me as well, but in this competition it has brought it out of me even more because the very best also has that competitive drive and we support each other but also want that win at Regionals. All of us bring to the table a unique characteristic. So from the very start, very first day, we didn't know each other, we were strangers, but the Army has that sort of bond of a family and so it was very easy for us to click together and from all the teamwork and all the other events, whether they were team events or individual events, we were there to support each other if someone didn't know the answer on a team event. Not only was they were quick to respond, but it was a teaching moment. A soldier needs to have drive, they need to have compassion for what they do. All of us here, we all wanted to do the events, whether we wanted to or not. We had that drive and motivation to finish it at the very least. No one wanted to quit, no one wanted their battle buddy to quit. We were all there and what it takes to win is standing next to one another doing it with them. What keeps me going on an individual level is I'm a strong, willed person and if I start something, I have to finish it. No matter if I get first or if I get last, it's the complete cycle of competition. You start something, you have to finish it. Win or lose, the competitors and I hope to take back everything that they've learned here, whether it was the first time doing it or we've all done a weapons qual before, so we always learn something from every event. So we can take home the lessons learned and apply that to other characteristics of our lives. To prepare for this, my sponsor worked with me a lot. There was a lot of Fridays and Monday mornings going over weapon systems and radios and stuff like that and also the Army Publishing Directorate with all the lists of ADPs that you can spend plenty of hours going over. For my civilian work, I'm a CNA and a firefighter and I think as far as just memorizing different regulations and fire codes and stuff that translates pretty well to just memorizing different Army regulations and doctrine publications and that sort of thing, as well as just the physicality of it, definitely helps. I think my best event would have to be the rifle qual, which I was expecting for me anyway, just given the job and given the position and I like shooting so it's good to be able to get to Army ranges. To win, you've got to want it, which you've got to prepare physically and mentally, of course. The way that this one's structured, the physical events are definitely more important but it was also shown that you can't just be a one-trick pony either. You've got to be pretty well rounded. Being able to work with the state partners was a really cool experience because I've never had any sort of interaction with foreign military forces and it was good to see the ways that we did things the same and also the ways that we do things a little bit differently and as far as the state partners that we worked with they were all very positive, motivated guys and it was a pleasure to be able to work with them this week.