I studied day in, day out, did a lot of on-hands training. On-hands training, meaning you actually go into that rate, you know, and go into the workspace where they're actually working and participate in things that they're doing.

When I took the test the first time, I didn't advance in the rate. That was disappointing and it becomes discouraging because you know you have worked so hard for it, but I didn't let that bring me down. I used that as more motivation to do what I needed to do, so I studied again and did a lot of OJT and six months later I took the exam again and I advanced. You know, I made rate, and that was really rewarding to me because not only did I make rate, but the pay increases, so that was a big motivation for me. So -

I got a lot of attention because, for one, I was their only female gunner's mate on the ship at the time, and now that I'm stationed on the U.S. Inchon, I was the only female gunner's mate on there when I checked onboard. So I got a lot of attention on that, you know, carrying a weapon around. Seems like, oh you know, I didn't know we have female gunner's mates in the Navy. You know, we're very rare, so I chose that rating because, you know, I love the attention and being a female, you know, it was like, whoa, I didn't know they even exist.

Staying in is an option, but I would like to better myself and bettering myself would mean advancing in rating. I'm looking forward to putting in many officer packets.

I have a degree in sociology and psychology, double majors, so that was a good side of the Navy, too, because I was - I went to college for a year and a half. I left college and I came into the military, so by coming into the military, I was able to finish my degree. So that was a big thing for me. I did that while I was stationed overseas in Guam. It was a lot of hard work because it's not like I was able to sit in a college classroom and the ship was underway in Japan for two or three months. I had to stay on the ship and do college classes on the computer, do college courses on the computer, mailing essays. I had to stay up late to finish a course on the computer that was due like in three weeks, you know, and it's not easy when you have to work from 7:00 in the morning to 8:00, 9:00 at night being overseas. And that was something that I had to - to focus on, you know, doing many hard hours of working in the cold and the rain, but I knew where my focus was and I knew what my goal was, and that was to get a college degree.