Alright here’s my story,
Ever since I can remember I’ve wanted to be a soldier. I can’t explain why but I just feel a sense of duty to serve. It’s like a flame burning inside me and whenever I think about being on the battlefield defending the country I love and the ideals it stands for that flame burns brighter and brighter. But after thinking about it more and more and researching the different roles in the military I decided I not only wanted to be a soldier but I wanted to be the best of the best. I wanted to be a SEAL. Since the 7th grade I’ve wanted to be a Navy SEAL and I’ve been drawn to everything about the SEALs. However when I brought it up with my parents they told me that I COULD NOT enlist. Around that time I had found out about the Naval Academy, and decided that I was going to go to the Academy and become a SEAL after I graduate. However at the time I was too young to comprehend exactly how hard it was going to be to achieve this goal…
I am now a Junior in high school. My high school is a private catholic school that my parents pay for, with help from my grandparents. There have been 5 or 6 guys who have gone from my school to the academy and graduated, 4 of them were accepted in the same year actually, so the academy knows about my school. As do the Naval Academy’s football coaches; we’re one of the best teams in my state. I am strong, and fast for my size (6 foot 210lbs). I am still working on putting on more muscle though. Simply put my grades arent perfect. They aren’t bad, my accumulative GPA from my sophomore and freshman years was a 3.3 with football and track (ive been on the varsity football team for 2 years and ill be varsity for track this year, i started track my sophomore year.) but from what ive heard gradewise that is not good enough for the academy. I’m taking two AP classes (AP Physics and AP American Literature), and im in honors pre-calculus. Im trying to maintain my grades but I cant seem to get all of my classes to be mostly A’s. Im putting all my time during the week into school and sports. Right when i get home (usually at 6:00) i eat, do homework until about 11:30 or 12:00 and then go to bed and repeat. I am an exceptionally good standardized test taker and i was only a few points away from getting the National Merit Scholarship last year and this year on the PSAT, and without studying I took the ACT for the first time in June to see what it was like and got a 26. I plan to take it again in December and again after until i get a 32 or above. I attended the football camp over the summer at the Naval Academy and spoke with the coaches, they seemed interested but I dont want to rely on football. Im good but I’m not amazing at it. They told me to send them highlight tapes and to talk to them when they come to my school in December or January. I dont have any leadership though and I dont know what to do for that. I am in contact with two men who went to the academy from my highschool and graduated a few years ago, and they’re going to put me in contact with their Blue and Gold Officer that helped them and other students from my school get into the academy. So, I guess I have two questions: from what i just said, what are my current chances of getting into the Academy?
And second, if my main focus is to be a SEAL operator, should I just enlist? I love the academy I’ve been to the campus twice and as a college I’ve fallen in love with it and with the thought of going there. And if i do enlist i feel like I’ll be betraying my parents by wasting all the tuition money they spent on my high school education just to have me enlist. I don’t know what to do
PS: Ignore my previous post, I accidentally posted it while typing this
Seems like there are options in between enlisting after high school and attending the Naval Academy to become a SEAL. Have you looked into ROTC programs that exist at various colleges? With your GPA and lack of leadership activities, that might be a good option for you.