I have had the great privilege to serve in the U.S. Air Force Reserve for nearly 14 years and my military journey was not a typical one. It has taken me on adventures and led me to where I am today.

I’ve always considered myself a server by nature, but I didn’t know what to expect when I enlisted. I didn’t come from a true military background as my father was drafted to join the U.S. Marine Corps to answer the nation’s call but was excused from his selection as he was his mother’s only child.

The idea to serve my country had always been there. My earliest awareness of the military was attending Cal Expo as a California kid, and I remember seeing the Blue Angels for this first time. Their air demonstration completely blew my mind and made a significant impact on me. I had no idea decades later I would end up working with them on two different occasions during my service career.

Towards the end of my senior year, I chose to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, and the Navy recruiting office was the closest place to my high school. I did well and they wanted to make me a nuclear engineer and put me on a bus the next day. They asked me what I wanted to do and I said fly. The recruiter was excited and told me that’s what he wanted to do, too. When I asked why that never happened for him, he said his eyesight disqualified him. That concerned me because my eyesight was not great either (part genetics or maybe part sitting too close to the TV growing up). So that, coupled with attending my freshman year of college on the horizon, sent me the way of academia and away from jets. [Again, I didn’t have anyone I knew with military background to talk to and ask questions. So, if anyone reading this is in the same predicament, please ask someone you trust to point you in a good direction to talk to someone who can provide answers to your questions.]

Fast forward around a decade later and I’m 30. Having graduated with a bachelor’s in communication, I was working for the video production team for a National Basketball Association franchise. I mentioned the age because I was at the threshold of “aging out” and from my understanding becoming too old to serve in the military. A co-worker of mine was in the Air Force Reserve and I had another co-worker who was looking at joining the National Guard. We had many conversations, and I had to make a decision to either serve now or always wished I had. There were some career fields I was considering, but my recruiter seemed to only have one in mind.

I joined the world of public affairs (PA) as a combat correspondent/videographer. It’s a rewarding career field because it allows you to appreciate and experience nearly every job but most importantly allows you to highlight the people who are doing that mission. No matter what job they have within their wing [organization], if their duty does not get accomplished, the mission fails.

This field also allows you to be creative because you can tell that story or feature that airman through video, photos, writing, radio/podcast or even by graphic design. Some of my favorite work was shining a spotlight on those who are often in the background because they are important, too. Bombs don’t find their targets and warfighters won’t get downrange without the team’s support to put those aircraft in the sky.

There’s also another side to PA that makes it one of the most dynamic career fields and I didn’t fully understand it until I was hired as a PA specialist on the civilian side. The job really demands that you have the ability to communicate, strategize, engage and critically think well. From helping the commander to develop and distribute their intended command message to the audience who needs to hear it, engaging transparently with the public, responding to a base emergency or even trying to figure out how to best help the team communicate and continue operations through a pandemic, this job gives you plenty of opportunity to practice these skills and it’s never really the same day twice.

Although I still have much more to learn, this career field has taught me many things. You don’t have to wear a uniform to [still] serve your country. I’ve learned it’s important to really know your stuff because some of the best-laid plans can inevitably also make some of the most spectacular explosions and knowing how to use your equipment will be handy to help you accomplish plans d, e, f or z. I’ve learned that when a mission’s failure or success relies on you, making a choice is always better than doing nothing. If you are afraid to make the wrong choice and decide to do nothing, the mission fails. If you make the wrong choice [and the situation is not fatal] and the mission fails, at least you’ll be able to learn from your mistakes and learn more about yourself. Lastly, I learned that you never know where life will take you.

This wasn’t the career field I ever had planned on [and maybe I should have commissioned instead] but I sometimes wonder what my life would’ve looked like had I become that Naval nuclear engineer. Yet, this journey has allowed me to deploy, to travel around the world and engage with America’s allied forces and meet and work with some really great people and great public affairs personnel. It has put several talents to good use for something greater than myself and has helped me get to where I am as I continue to serve my country today. PA has not always been easy [oftentimes the opposite] and in this busy world, I’m thankful for a job that allows me moments to pause, get to know and highlight some of the amazing people who serve the warfighter. It really does take all of us to make the mission happen and I’m happy to tell that story.