Hello,
This may not be the right place, or website, to ask this, but I will ask in case anyone has any advice.
Can you suggest ways to develop the qualities of a good officer (to me, a good officer is a good leader), including: strong leadership skills/people skills developed and honed through experience, confidence, ability to manage people, ability to take care of people and their well-beings, organizational skills, ability to plan/implement/evaluate/improve, being vocal, etc.? (seems like medical school/residency training helps you with these, but I'm not there yet) Practical/real-life experiences, readings, etc. - anything is appreciated.
These are areas that I want to improve in. They are also important if I am to become a physician, but they are also just important characteristics to have in general, in order to be the kind of person I want to be.
Let me know if I can provide any other details. Thanks for reading and for any advice you can give.
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Some background/more details:
Last year, I attended USMC OCS, where I lasted 9 out of 10 weeks (and week 10 was just outprocessing). I did not graduate/commission due to my grade in leadership being below the minimum. Looking back, I'd say my failures stemmed from lack of self-confidence and people skills. As a result, I did not connect enough with the other candidates and did not share my strengths and use them to help others. There were other issues that stemmed from these deficiencies, like not getting things done quickly or fastidiously enough. I started to change things toward the end, but by then it was too late.
While there, I started getting interested in the roles of the Navy corpsmen and physical trainer. Also, in the year before I went to OCS, I started taking science classes and getting interested in working in a STEM field. So once I returned from OCS, I started volunteering in a hospital to learn more about healthcare fields. That has led me to my present goal of becoming a doctor.
Going through OCS was difficult, but I am very grateful for the things I learned, realizations I had, accurate self-awareness I developed, and how I changed (and how much more I still want/need to change).
As I'm sure you know, you learn a lot about yourself, others, and life when living in a physically, mentally, and emotionally stressful environment. The regular day-to-day civilian world is very different. I know it's not good to live in a boot camp-type environment for the rest of your life, but I miss the life-changing aspects of OCS, of facing your weaknesses or having them shoved in your face and exposed to everyone else, of the camaraderie developed among people who go through similar struggles together or who have similar values - in general, of being challenged in ways that, once you overcome them, make you stronger and more confident in your ability to do anything).
My question is, are there ways of replicating or finding similar experiences that will challenge me mentally/physically/emotionally, that will force me to confront my weaknesses head-on and improve them? Those kinds of stressful/"traumatic" experiences from which I can learn and grow and become a better person. Develop better leadership skills, practice working with and helping others, take care of others. Develop qualities like those of a good officer, through a means other than actually becoming an officer (since I want to go to medical school).
This may not be the right place, or website, to ask this, but I will ask in case anyone has any advice.
Can you suggest ways to develop the qualities of a good officer (to me, a good officer is a good leader), including: strong leadership skills/people skills developed and honed through experience, confidence, ability to manage people, ability to take care of people and their well-beings, organizational skills, ability to plan/implement/evaluate/improve, being vocal, etc.? (seems like medical school/residency training helps you with these, but I'm not there yet) Practical/real-life experiences, readings, etc. - anything is appreciated.
These are areas that I want to improve in. They are also important if I am to become a physician, but they are also just important characteristics to have in general, in order to be the kind of person I want to be.
Let me know if I can provide any other details. Thanks for reading and for any advice you can give.
------------------------------------------------------
Some background/more details:
Last year, I attended USMC OCS, where I lasted 9 out of 10 weeks (and week 10 was just outprocessing). I did not graduate/commission due to my grade in leadership being below the minimum. Looking back, I'd say my failures stemmed from lack of self-confidence and people skills. As a result, I did not connect enough with the other candidates and did not share my strengths and use them to help others. There were other issues that stemmed from these deficiencies, like not getting things done quickly or fastidiously enough. I started to change things toward the end, but by then it was too late.
While there, I started getting interested in the roles of the Navy corpsmen and physical trainer. Also, in the year before I went to OCS, I started taking science classes and getting interested in working in a STEM field. So once I returned from OCS, I started volunteering in a hospital to learn more about healthcare fields. That has led me to my present goal of becoming a doctor.
Going through OCS was difficult, but I am very grateful for the things I learned, realizations I had, accurate self-awareness I developed, and how I changed (and how much more I still want/need to change).
As I'm sure you know, you learn a lot about yourself, others, and life when living in a physically, mentally, and emotionally stressful environment. The regular day-to-day civilian world is very different. I know it's not good to live in a boot camp-type environment for the rest of your life, but I miss the life-changing aspects of OCS, of facing your weaknesses or having them shoved in your face and exposed to everyone else, of the camaraderie developed among people who go through similar struggles together or who have similar values - in general, of being challenged in ways that, once you overcome them, make you stronger and more confident in your ability to do anything).
My question is, are there ways of replicating or finding similar experiences that will challenge me mentally/physically/emotionally, that will force me to confront my weaknesses head-on and improve them? Those kinds of stressful/"traumatic" experiences from which I can learn and grow and become a better person. Develop better leadership skills, practice working with and helping others, take care of others. Develop qualities like those of a good officer, through a means other than actually becoming an officer (since I want to go to medical school).
