Now in order to truly understand how warped my perception was, I need to explain some things. First off, when I was young I do not recall ever leaving the city of Lexington. We rarely left our side of the city because my father always worked and never had much free time. The outside world to me was only the things that I saw on television or movies and read or heard on the radio. So imagine the thoughts in my head when this recruiter knocks on my door dressed in his uniform, and telling me how much I need to join the Army, and how much it will change my life.
The day finally came for me to leave for the Army; SSG Jackson picked me up and drove me to the local in-processing station. When all the festivities and paperwork were done one of the biggest shocks of my life happened; he drove me to the airport. I had never been on an airplane before and was extremely nervous. When I arrived at Fort Jackson South Carolina all of my worst fears were realized. When the bus pulled up to the reception building there were about ten Drill Instructors standing in wait for us. We filed off the bus and into the reception hall and then all of a sudden the ground opened up and the building was swallowed up by “Hell”. These guys started screaming, cursing and foaming at the mouth. I remember thinking to myself, “Oh my God the movies were right”. Some of them were standing on chairs so they could yell directly into your ear. I kept thinking that these guys have a serious personal space issue, and praying that they did not feel the need to harass me. But for some reason my wish was not granted and I brought down the wrath of two of them at the same time. Apparently I had on my face, what appeared to one of them, a smile. I guess I could have been because I thought it was amusing that a man this small, 5’ 8” and about 170 pounds, was yelling in my ear that he was going to kick the living crap out of me. The amusing part was that I grew up with at father who was 6’ 6” and weighed in at about 280 pounds, so this to me seemed to be amusing.
After this was all over and I was finally safe at my first duty assignment, I met some Drill Instructors and they explained what this was all about. He said that because of the seriousness and finality of combat that it was imperative for them to first get our attention for the training, and then to stress us beyond belief. He said that because combat was so stressful that they wanted us to crack here if we were going to and not in combat were we could be killed or someone else could be killed. He said that they are in the business of killing the enemy and not our own.
The idea that the perception of individuals is shaped by the community they are associated with, is accurate in most cases. Throughout my experiences I realized that being influenced by your surroundings is virtually unavoidable. To answer the question posed in the introduction, reality is what you determine it is by exploring and coming to a conclusion on your own. By staying as open minded as possible, you could determine reality on the basis of your own experiences, and not the ones of others.
