Ever since I got out of high school, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life. I was only eighteen, and still had eighty percent of my life ahead of me, but people were pushing for you to be grown up at eighteen. I was walking down the street a few weeks later, and I saw a sign. The sign was actually the first time I saw hope for my future. I walked into the recruiting office and told them I saw their sign about joining the Navy and becoming an HVAC technician. The recruiter told me they needed HVAC technicians to work on the ships and submarines. They would do all the training I needed and by the time I was ready to get out of the Navy, I would have all the experience I needed to move into an HVAC company and start my civilian career. I signed up that same day, and all I had to do was go home and tell my parents what I had done. My dad was proud of me, but my mom burst into tears. She didn’t want me going into the Navy or any other part of the armed forces, but I had made my decision. I was going to go to school for HVAC, get a career started while in the Navy and eventually I could work in any HVAC company I chose. She cried for two days, but eventually she realized it was my life and I was old enough to make my own choices. I joined the Navy and I was going to be an HVAC technician on a submarine.