An explanation of what Senior Airman Below-The-Zone is; I have a chance to be promoted to the next enlisted rank 6 months early.
Dig deep. What does this mean? I can become a Senior Airman (SrA) 6 months before my automatic promotion date. I can get paid SrA pay (any increase in pay is welcome, always) 6 months early.
Dig deeper. I have to be *selected* for this. Every quarter there is a process where eligible Airmen First Class (A1Cs) are submitted to get this award. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing. If I get it, it’s a HUGE step in my career in the military.
Dig deepest. I have to be *SELECTED* out of a pool of my peers for this. I have the chance to be selected and designated as “out of all these people, we chose you”. The United States Air Force, putting in my charge not only an award of the next rank, but as a matter of facts-and-figures putting their money where their mouth is. This isn’t some rotating award that gets awarded around the squadron, like (from what I’ve seen) the dorm inspection award or even the quarterly/annual awards. This is THE award for airmen of my rank. If you get this, you are the military shit as far as most USAF enlisted personnel are concerned.
So I have this board tomorrow. It’s a face board for Senior Airman Below-The-Zone. It’s a small room, just me and a panel of senior-ranking military personnel asking me various questions about different aspects of enlisted service in the USAF. I must retain my military bearing and remain communicative. I must NOT lock up and stutter and be a nervous wreck.
I will succeed.
-TJ
So I have this board tomorrow. It’s a face board for Senior Airman Below-The-Zone. I’m nervous as hell.
-TJ
Wow, scrolling down through the entries I happened upon my entry of two weeks ago, where I ran after work on Monday.
I think I’ll do it again tomorrow. 
Hell, I vacuumed my room today and thus defeated my Sloth demon, I can score another victory against it tomorrow if I do my 5k after work.
Pray for me, and/or wish me luck!
-TJ
I need to jot this down before it fades away…
::begin note::
I think I’ve spent alot of my past few years shunning filipinos. All through high school hardly any of my friends were pinoy, even though we had quite a large population in my school. Throughout college I didn’t make any filipino friends… I guess deep down I thought I was better than them for some stupid reason.
And now here I am, in my real and present life as a wearer of the military uniform, and for the first time I’m discovering a contingent of filipinos on base that I was allowed to stumble upon by the grace of God. It started out as a volunteer opportunity, but for some reason I feel like I’ve found something else.
I guess the thing that stands out in my mind the most is how these people I just met haven’t tried to use me yet. Or maybe it’s just one of many voids I have in my being that’s finally being fulfilled… contact with my own people. It’s kinda cool, and yet a sweet sadness is present within… I look at these people, and I can kinda understand what they say… I guess I’m trying to say that I feel like I belong there and yet I feel like I don’t. Story of my life, eh?
God, what *am* I trying to say? I guess the core of it is that I’ve found something–I don’t know what–and I hope that I can continue to feed my soul the way that I have been during the past few weeks.
::end note::
Anyway, that’s all I can muster on that. I’ve noticed that when I jot down these notes, they tend to evoke other thoughts and feelings that I want to put down here, and that they do not necessarily follow a “stream”, as in a stream of consciousness that I have been following this whole time. My mind is all over the place… friends and family know that I will analyze and overanalyze things. I guess my noggin is hyperactive in this sense, I’ll watch and process and re-process while I continue to watch what happens before me until a massive, swirling vortex of thought overwhelms me and I cease to pay attention to what’s happening around me any longer… it sounds stupid but this is an actual problem I have.
This only happens when I’m left to myself for a while. So it follows logically that I need to get out more. 
-TJ
I’m basically a good person, I think.
That said, I have my demons. Right now I’m in a frame of mind where I can conquer them and leave them behind.
Pray for me, that I can maintain this strength until I see this through.
-TJ
Could the desire to go home be influenced by my desire to re-visit my past as a more developed individual?
I guess I want to see what I’m like around my old environment. What can I say… it’s the scientist in me.
-TJ
My trip up the Quarterly award chain ended for me at the wing. Here’s where I ended up in that chain…
-Air Force
–AFSPC (Air Force Space Command)
—14th Air Force
—-21st Space Wing <– nominated for this
—–21st Maintenance Group <– won this
——21st Space Communication Squadron <– won this
So yeah. It was all too short of a ride for me, I guess I’m just gonna have to kick even more ass to get one of those coveted 12 outstanding Airmen of the Air Force awards.
Oh well, there’s always the Annual! Grats to the Airman who beat me out at the Wing… as we like to say at the office, she must have “Saved a baby from a burning home.” (Or as I like to say “Saved a home from a burning baby.”, or just “Saved a burning baby”)
-TJ
I just want to hang out with peoples and visit all my old stomping grounds. I’ll try to be there this 4th of July and then some, but we’ll have to wait and see if that actually happens.
-TJ
Waist: 28 inches
Run: 12:48
Situps: 55
Pushups: 60
I’m happy to report that I completed everything I said I’d do today! I did a little bit of coding, busted my butt at work, and after work I ran my 5K!
I’m on my way baby! I’M ON MY WAY!
-TJ