The Marines’ slogan of “The Few. The Proud. The Marines” will be especially significant to Central senior Caleb Yglesias. Following graduation, Yglesias will be enlisting in the Marine Corps to begin his military career.

A mere two percent of high school graduates enlist in the military. Out of 329.5 million people in the United States, there are around 1.4 million active-duty members of the military and 857,261 in the reserve and guard as of 2010. The number of active-duty members has gone down about 40 percent since 1990, which is a pretty significant amount.

Yglesias explained,”Honestly I don’t have a great reason for joining the military. I didn’t really have a plan when it came to college, and college wouldn’t really be considered my ‘scene’,”

“I have a lot of family members who have been and are in the military, so there’s just a thing about wanting to make my family proud,” the senior continued.

An issue Yglesias has faced with his enlistment process has been finding a specific job contract for him to sign. He was supposed to start basic training in June, but due to this conflict, he may be delayed until July or August.

“Personally, the enlistment process was pretty straightforward. You find a recruiter, become friends with your recruiter, then you go to MEPS to make sure you qualify, and lastly, you go to PT twice a week to prepare you for basic,” Yglesias stated. “During PT you do teambuilding exercises, learn how to communicate and cooperate with the people around you, and learn skills because the military is usually a different environment than you are used to.”

When it comes to basic training there are always going to be nerves and anxiety no matter who you are. Yglesias found it easier to cope with not knowing any additional information other than what he already knew from friends and his recruiter.

“All I really know is that it’s going to be around three months long. I’d imagine it wouldn’t be any different than any other basic training other than the fact that all of the different branches have different standards, ” he said.

One obstacle he is a bit concerned about is the ‘Crucible’.

“There is this thing called the crucible. From what I’ve heard, it’s about 54 hours long and you’re only allowed four hours of sleep, you only get two meals, and you don’t really do anything. It’s kind of like an initiation,” he explained.

Still, he thinks that he is up for the challenge of this task.

“I think it’s pretty cool because you endure all of that and then there is a satisfaction to know I did it. I want to go in there blind because if I don’t, I’m most likely going to overthink everything and I’ll get overly anxious.”