Keep your head up!
I just now saw this post and it prompted me out of lurker-dom. Some people here probably know me from www.marineocs.com. Anyways, all I can say is keep your head up completely. The Marine Corps wants men of absolute integrity and moral fiber. I for one thought I was personally doomed to never get selected for OCS, but I was and I had THREE waivers standing in my way. A small 1x marijuana usage when I was 14, a wreckless driving conviction from when I was 16, and a 1x steroid use when I was 19.
I admitted to all of them, the reasons behind why they happened, and how I have grown/what I've learned since then. I use my knowledge about the things I've done to teach the kids I coach in wrestling about what to stay away from. I over hear my wrestlers and other athletes talk about drugs and the sort, I interject, and tell them the hard truth to it. The kids can't look at me and tell me I'm full of BS because they know where I've been. I included that in my explanation/the morality letter I had to write and my OSO, the Majors on the district board, and the Major in charge of recruiting out of St. Louis thought it was spectacular.
Just go with your gut, and do what is right. That way you can go to bed every night with a clean plate and nothing on your mind. Also, as someone else said bust your butt in every other aspect of your package. I luckily am hugely involved around campus with my Fraternity obligations, Honors program, college athletics, volunteering, community service, etc. So that helped, plus I've made sure my work references are outstanding, and that I selected the right people for my character references (I had my Uncle, VADM Harms, retired Navy/former CNET write me one and his two sons who are a Naval and USMC Aviator). And the last thing, one that I think is hugely important is your PFT score. Bust your hump on that and show that you can not only get that 1st class PFT, but that you can max those charts out. It doesn't take a suberbly fit, college class athlete to score a 300, just a lot of hardwork. I had a few injuries that were hounding me from wrestling and was only scoring a 252 on my first PFT, but 2.5 months later I was running a 290+ everytime. My last two PFTs were a 291 and 300, 19/100/18:33 and a 20/100/17:40. Just get to it and get yours.
I just now saw this post and it prompted me out of lurker-dom. Some people here probably know me from www.marineocs.com. Anyways, all I can say is keep your head up completely. The Marine Corps wants men of absolute integrity and moral fiber. I for one thought I was personally doomed to never get selected for OCS, but I was and I had THREE waivers standing in my way. A small 1x marijuana usage when I was 14, a wreckless driving conviction from when I was 16, and a 1x steroid use when I was 19.
I admitted to all of them, the reasons behind why they happened, and how I have grown/what I've learned since then. I use my knowledge about the things I've done to teach the kids I coach in wrestling about what to stay away from. I over hear my wrestlers and other athletes talk about drugs and the sort, I interject, and tell them the hard truth to it. The kids can't look at me and tell me I'm full of BS because they know where I've been. I included that in my explanation/the morality letter I had to write and my OSO, the Majors on the district board, and the Major in charge of recruiting out of St. Louis thought it was spectacular.
Just go with your gut, and do what is right. That way you can go to bed every night with a clean plate and nothing on your mind. Also, as someone else said bust your butt in every other aspect of your package. I luckily am hugely involved around campus with my Fraternity obligations, Honors program, college athletics, volunteering, community service, etc. So that helped, plus I've made sure my work references are outstanding, and that I selected the right people for my character references (I had my Uncle, VADM Harms, retired Navy/former CNET write me one and his two sons who are a Naval and USMC Aviator). And the last thing, one that I think is hugely important is your PFT score. Bust your hump on that and show that you can not only get that 1st class PFT, but that you can max those charts out. It doesn't take a suberbly fit, college class athlete to score a 300, just a lot of hardwork. I had a few injuries that were hounding me from wrestling and was only scoring a 252 on my first PFT, but 2.5 months later I was running a 290+ everytime. My last two PFTs were a 291 and 300, 19/100/18:33 and a 20/100/17:40. Just get to it and get yours.