Have fun selling your life to uncle sam.
By the way, he doesn't value it as much as people tend to lead on.

"leave my whole life behind" if you think that is going to happen, think again. It is more like "bring all my baggage to the surface so that all these dudes will see it and possibly make fun of it and ridicule me..." though it isn't all bad...because "out of it, maybe I will make a few good bro's"

"nothing for me here" = "nothing for you there" it wont fix anything. Bootcamp isn't tough, it just is.

The good?: Financial aid, benefits, good skill's, brotherhood, oh, and not having to really make as many decisions until you get up in rank or if your going the officers route (which I can tell that your not). Leadership skills. Get to play with fun toys and new technology.

The Bad: To quote Ivan "I will break you". You will bleed, sweat, cry, yell, feel every emotion there is. Suck it up and then grow out of it (or wash out...but don't do that). It can test you in ways that you didn't think. It may make you an a*hole

>>17107306
Active duty Lance Corporal here, 0612 Field Wireman about to graduate MOS school.
I first went to bootcamp July last year. And so far my experience has sucked so much dick.
I've kept my nose clean, not even so much as negative paperwork. But the sheer amount of stupid bullshit you're going to wind up doing will start to get to you after a while.
>field day your room for 3 hours, clean literally everything
>scrub floor with bleach and scuzz brush
>wipe every single surface you can find, even that tiny 1/4 inch surface on the top of the mirror
>Wall locker clean and organized, coffin (storage under bed) clean, secretary clean
>bleach floor again, air is burning your eyes and throat at this point
>scrub walls of shower until the space between the tiles shines white
>use polish on sinks and mirrors, shiny as fuck
>go over every single surface again with one of those swiffer duster things
>final touch use 3 bottles of febreze in the air
K I'm done now. Ready for Sergeant to inspect my room.
>Sgt walks in
>"Your floor is dirty, it smells like shit in here, your shower needs to be scrubbed and there's smudges on the mirror"
>Sgt walks over to random part of the room
>"did you dust this?"
motherfucker I dusted everything
>runs finger over random spot
>finger magically covered in dust
That's every single Monday. (cont.)

That being said, there's a lot of research you need to do before you sign anything.
Look at different MOS's, see which ones you think you'd be good in, which ones transfer to a good civilian job, where you'll be for MOS training.
AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T BE A DUMBASS AND TAKE AN 03XX OR OPEN CONTRACT.
The glory of the "grunt" isn't worth it.
If you're good at PT, get better. 20 pull ups isn't good enough, do 25. A perfect 100 crunches on the PFT isn't enough, do 125. Get your fucking 3 mile run time down below 18 minutes.
And if you don't want to die, ask your recruiter about "I.T." and have him run you through it a couple times after PT. Because if you're on /adv/ asking for help joining the Marines then I guarantee you're going to spend a LOT of time on the quarterdeck pushing. Get to where you can do 150 push ups in a row nonstop and feel fine.
And learn to hold your temper. You're going to get mad. You're going to get beaten down and spit on (yes literally, happened to me in boot camp. Even had my ribs kicked while I was down).
You're going to spend a lot of your time in MCT and MOS school on standby, literally doing nothing. Hurry up, get over here, get this done, faster, faster, faster, okay now wait here for 3 hours.
You're going to be sleep deprived. To get an idea just wake up 3 hours after you go to sleep, get dressed, stand up, and just stand there not falling asleep for 2 hours. Then go back to bed and wake up at your normal time. That's firewatch in boot camp.
It's got its benefits. but it's also going to suck like a motherfucker in the corps.

>>17107371
>the sheer amount of stupid bullshit
THIS
If you're doing anything military, but especially in the marines, be prepared for an unbelievable amount of this!

If you get to boot camp in a couple months, take this advice.
First time at the PX: BUY EXTRA SOCKS. LIKE 2 PAIRS OF BOOT SOCKS AND A PAIR WHITE SOCKS EVERY TIME YOU GO FOR THE FIRST MONTH.
You're gonna need those socks. Also foot powder if you're there in the summer/ early fall.
Do your goddamn laundry. Always have at least 3-4 clean skivvy rolls ready (you'll learn about those in boot camp, basically underwear socks shirt shorts all rolled up in a little ball).
SOUND THE FUCK OFF. Use your big boy voice faggot. Deep breath in, use your goddamn diaphragm to actually shout.
Learn the enlisted and officer rank structure, and the general orders before you go to boot camp. Saves time.
And if you're like me and you're closet transgender trying to join to "man up" and stop feeling trans, it doesn't work.

>>17107306
Whatever you do become a specialist in something like engineering so you have some skill to fall back on this should stop you becoming a cop & shooting niggers

>>17107395
Specialists are the Army.