RECEPTION.

June 16 was the day I shipped out to Fort Jackson, SC. However, this was not the same day I shipped directly to my unit--before that, I had to go through Reception, which was probably the worst part of BCT. It was around midnight or so when the coach buses came to pick all of us up from the airport, and the bus ride was about 25 minutes. Everyone was afraid to fall asleep, for fear that they would get a rude awakening by a drill sergeant. Needless to say, it was a drill sergeant that got on the bus when we arrived in the Reception Battalion, who barked at us to form up according to branch. We thought they were going to bring us to the barracks to go to sleep, but to our dismay, our inprocessing started right when we got off the bus. No sleep til 2200 the next day. What a great way to start off Basic.

Inprocessing involved filling out endless amounts of paperwork, from financial matters to medical histories to life insurance. This was also when we got issued our uniforms, boots, military IDs, and vaccines. Getting our vaccines was the worst part--we all filed into this one room, where there was a line of NCOs holding needles, and they were not gentle at all. It was like, step up, STAB, walk to the next NCO, STAB, and so on and so forth. The last shot was the ever so gentle Hep B shot, which was inserted all the way into my arm bone, nearly causing me to faint. Nothing like getting 6 shots in a row, huh?

Reception was when the Army principle of "hurry up and wait" was at its finest. For every room we had to go through, for every process and issue we needed to do, there was a long, long line, and this line involved standing at parade rest with our mouths shut. I think it was around this time when I somehow learned how to sleep at parade rest with my eyes cracked open. Other people tried this tactic but failed miserably. The lack of sleep, combined with the little amount of time we had to adjust to a fast paced environment, equals a clusterfuck of epic failure, which we were constantly reminded of by the workers and drill sergeants that worked in Reception. I remember when it was my turn to get my ID picture taken, the specialist told me to key in the last four digits of my social. I looked at her blankly, because I did not understand what she meant. I didn't see a keyboard in front of me. So then she repeats herself, but also adding that if I didn't get it by then she would repeat herself rudely. I still didn't understand. Then she yells at me, and finally points to the number pad that was at the other side of the computer, by the wall. Her battle buddy proceeded to mock me, "Oh, she probably expected the numberpad to be on the ceiling or something!" Never in my life had I met such a rude staff. I mean, I get the whole "you're only a Recruit, you're not really in the Army yet", but we're still people so we still deserve some sliver of respect...Anyway, if you ever get a chance to look at my military ID, now you know why I look like I'm about to kill someone lol.

There were so many people who already wanted out, and I could only pitifully shake my head at them. If you can't even get through something as simple as getting your hearing test done, how can you expect to survive Basic? I was actually surprised at how many immature, stubborn, disrespectful and weakminded people there were, but I guess I was a bit naive in expecting to be surrounded by a bunch of motivated, dedicated, super hooah people? Idk. Most of the people I shipped out with were either still in high school or just graduated high school, so I shouldn't have been too surprised by the lack of maturity. I'll never forget standing outside the medical quarters, and all we had to do in our formation was to get accountability of everyone. Did we do that? NO. Instead we just stood there, in the scorching heat, bickering and arguing about HOW to count everyone who was there. I had never been so frustrated, how something as simple as counting had to turn into the argument of the century. Heck, there were people crying over it. This was when I prayed that wherever I end up, I hope I didn't end up in a gagglefuck like I was in at that time.

That's pretty much what Reception was. Waiting, sleeping, arguing, and waiting some more. Luckily I was only there for four days, sucks for the people who had to be there for like 2 weeks...