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Thanks to my family, I have always been surrounded by people who have served in the military, and they have played an inspirational role in my upbringing. My grandfather and great grandparents served, and they are the biggest example to me as the people I looked up to were shaped by its principles and their experiences in it. 

Thanks to them, I’ve always had a positive outlook on the military.  These positive role models made me inspired and motivated to join the military and become like them, people who protect our nation and serve their country. 

Despite these role models I am also not oblivious to current events.

I saw, online, where everyone saw it, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency kill seemingly innocent people in in the streets of Minneapolis in January, and I thought to myself, “How am I supposed to serve and protect when I am given orders to act as a domestic police officer against ‘insurrectionists,’ who, in reality, are just my fellow citizens protesting the way immigration enforcement is being handled?” 

This is the issue I’ve been faced with since I’ve turned 18 on January 19.

Every time I would go on Instagram or TikTok it would be the first thing on my feed, people protesting for their human rights.

On my FYP, I saw an I.C.E. tell a physician who asked to render medical assistant to Renee Good simply say “I don’t care.”

I saw bystander footage of the death of Renee Good on TikTok.

I saw I.C.E. detain 5-year-old Liam Ramos.

This issue, however, is what separates my goals of the Marine Corps from I.C.E. The final step in one’s Marine Corps enlistment process, taking the oath, is what separates us. In this oath, recruits swear to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies,” and last I checked, the Constitution does not align with these lack of due process, acting without warrants, the unlawful killing, that I.C.E. is accused of doing.

I am proud to be going into the Marine Corps, but I will make sure I stay true to my oath, and not commit unconstitutional crimes.

This is what the current state of our nation has taught me.