By Boatswain’s Mate 3rd Class Trenesha Clark
I’m very family
oriented. I’m pretty much doing the unthinkable right now being in the Navy. I
have a little bit of family background in the military but I’m the only female,
I know, in my family who was in the military.
I always thought about joining the Navy. My uncle, who was a
[master-at-arms], was always kind of pushing me into it and telling me to think
about it, but I wanted to see what was out there first, as far as the real
world. I was on a basketball scholarship and my main focus was studying criminal
justice. I had numerous jobs—two or three jobs at once, so I was pretty much
everywhere and then all of a sudden I got the urge to join. I thought, why not
just give it a shot? I was in [the delayed entry program] for five to six
months and the next thing I knew I was in boot camp.
My mom was kind of like, are you sure? But she’s always said
that I was responsible and make good decisions as far as what I want to do with
my life. She was pretty confident I was going to do well. She was still a
little nervous, you know, her baby girl was leaving. I was kind of surprised though. I thought she
was going to say, “Oh no. I don’t want you to go. Not the military,” but she
let me go.
