The Flavours of Enlistment
I'm not sure what I am looking to gain out of posting here today. Perhaps I am looking to vent a bit, work through my anxiety with the enlistment process, and try to find a little hope or perspective within this community.
I am 35 years old and made the decision to try enlisting as a NCM Signals Technician in August. I have college and University education and have been engaged in a professional IT career with municipal government for six years. It's a big decision that I made for myself following a cascade of other major personal changes in my life, some self initiated and some forced upon me.
I've just had my Medical Part 2 today and I've come out of it feeling discouraged. The end of processing is in sight, but I have four more forms to be completed by medical professionals before my file is sent to HQ for review and selection.
I have some medical history, most of it is from 10 to 20 years ago and has not been a problem since. I have hearing loss in one ear, notable but not detrimental to my current professional life. These forms today require testing and sign off on current state.
I don't have a family doctor, so getting these forms completed is always a chore through my local walk-in clinic. Every part of them comes at additional expense -- which I am easily able to cover, but is just another hurdle to face and requires hours out of possibly multiple evenings.
I don't have a recruiter to talk to about all of this. My enlistment was self-initiated through the online applicant portal. It feels like every time I move ahead in this process, I end up facing challenges and roadblocks that delay the full review of my file and leaves me in a perpetual stalemate of whether I should be preparing other vectors of my life for BMQ or not.
The thought of going through all of this without any guarantee that I have a serious chance of selection is disheartening. I am doing all I can on my end to succeed, but it's difficult to progress with the potential of failure looming nearby.
I have a lot going for me to be selected, but I also have things working against me. Enlistment in the CAF isn't my only option, but it is one I very much want for myself.
Not sure what I hoped to gain from posting. Maybe just trying anything to keep going with this.