Freedom is a road seldom travelled by the multitudes...

So on Tuesday I spent five hours from 9am to 2pm at the Parramatta Defence Force Recruiting Centre (or Unit...I can never remember which).

I handed in my ID and collected my various paperwork and a name sticker. Eight pages of application form and two hundred questions worth of Medical History Questionnaire (MHQ). All that was filled out and handed back in only to learn that the Gap Year programme for 2009 was closed. Would have been nice if someone had alerted me by phone, email or mail.

But I was there, so I was going to get something out of the experience, goddammit.

I was taken by an Airman to have my details put into the system. I think he misspelled my street name, lol, I don't know how because, perhaps ironically, all of the streets in my suburb are named after well known WW1 battles that the ANZACs fought in.

I then sat and watched the other people there. There were a few uniformed people - as one would expect in a Military building, lol - so I watched their boots. So shiny. Anyway, we were spoken at by an member of the Navy and a member of the Air Force, both were women. The Airwoman was in charge of the administrative side of things and the Seawoman (still Seaman, but y'know) was in charge of keeping us occupied and answering our questions. She talked for the full five hours, I'm sure of it.

I waited. And read a Navy newspaper.

I did a colour perception test for the nurse. I am not colour blind.

I sat and waited. We were talked to/at.

We were all given a number and taken into a room full of computers. We sat at the computer that matched our number and were given instructions (a recurring theme of the day). This was a computerised Aptitude/IQ test. It was to be completed in X amount of time and there would be two parts: General and Mathematics. I answered all of the General section and very few of the Mathematics section. I don't think I incorrectly answered the language questions or the coding/pattern questions. I think I might have gotten one of the Maths questions right. Hmm.

We were returned to the waiting area where we sat. And waited for the longest time. People were one by one called in to talk with a careers counsellor - all of whom were serving members of the Forces.

Here the Navy woman spoke about her experiences, dispelled some myths, made us laugh. Especially about her chatter about how good it was the the Military offers free medical and dental and especially how good it was for the guy on her last tour who broke both of his legs while playing volleyball. Or how she was talking about the seperate services, "if you're not into discipline, avoid the Army. It's very, very regimental. The Navy still has elements of that, but in a lot of ways its more relaxed. And the Air Force? Well...The Air Force is...Pretty casual".

I was finally called in to talk to this hulking mass of a man. An Army Officer whose name I can't remember. He was very nice though. He asked me a million questions to gather what I already knew. He asked me questions about me - my citizenship status, my family situation and how they felt, my physical fitness levels (thank Gods I'm in better shape now). We talked about the things that will be expected in IMT and whether or not I was still interested after I found out that the Gap Year was closed (I was). We dealt with my personal papers (certificates, employment history, etc). And then, then, we got to the results of my Aptitude/IQ test which showed the positions within the three services that I would be best suited for...

No engineering positions showed up, funnily enough. But I am eligible for all of the Cryptologistics positions I am interested in, including Cryptologic Systems Operator and *drools* Cryptologic Linguistics (languages and coding. Basically Intelligence work). I could also do the latter as a Submariner. The most interesting thing about the results is that they showed that I did well enough in the test to be able to skip all the tomfoolery and go straight to Officer School. I could be an Officer. Soon.

I then recieved more papers from him and had to see the nurse again to go over my MHQ.

I then took a short trip to the fifth floor to book in for an assessment, but I couldn't do that because the nurse hadn't scanned in my MHQ yet, so I have to call them. You know, that's not such a bad thing, though, because that way I have more time to think about it.

I tried to call the woman in charge of booking the assessments, but I couldn't get her on the damn phone. I will try again tomorrow morning.

I've made a decision. I am going to join the Royal Australian Navy. Or at least attempt to.

I will undergo 11 weeks of Initial Military Training. Then, hopefully graduate from Recruit School. Then go onto Category School for Initial Employment Training as a Boatswain's (Bosun's) Mate.

I don't want to become an Officer right off the bat because I'm not sure I could do it. Fortunately the bonus is if I want to, I can become an Officer later (and also, if you go through Officer School, you owe the Navy a longer service period). I can also transfer into Cryptologistics.

Phew.

So that's me for right now. I'm happy and mildly terrified, but I think that's normal.