Critical Thinking Case Study

Past, Present, and Future

Michael Hollowell
University of Phoenix
GEN / Interdisciplinary Capstone Course
Mrs. Nicole Seldon
1 September 2007
Week 4 / Individual Assignment

Past, Present, and Future
The past for me was full of ups and downs mostly learning experiences about whom I was and who I wanted to be. During high school I held a couple of jobs mostly fast food but they did not last long. Shortly after high school I enlisted in the army and became a soldier. It was very hard at first getting adjusted to the army way of life physically and mentally. But I soon learned the ropes after making a few mistakes. One of the first things I learned was to be responsible and accountable for my actions. This helped me mature into manhood. The army taught me to be a man by holding me responsible for my actions.
Being held responsible for your actions at 17 or 18 years old is not too much fun. So I still had a lot of growing up to do. After Basic Training I was shipped off to Germany for my first duty station. There I learned how to be a soldier in the regular army. I had to get up every morning at 5:00 am and do physical training before the work day started. The work day started at about 9:00 am from there I worked transporting nuclear warheads for my unit. The job held a lot of responsibility because there was little or no room for mistakes.
My first duty assignment was an eye opener for me I learned a lot about people. Because I was in a highly sensitive unit and the Europeans were always demonstrating in front of the base because of the nuclear weapons we had inside the unit was always on alert status. This caused a certain amount of stress to always get things right the first time around. The pressure was a good thing for me because it forced me to learn how to stay focused while multi-tasking. There were always classes being offered on base because we were locked down for 45 days at a time.
These classes were mostly military classes that would help... [continues]

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