{"id":110,"date":"2012-07-25T05:35:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-25T11:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.195.124.95\/~redletu4\/guest-post-mellissa-thomas-in-the-navy\/"},"modified":"2012-07-25T05:35:00","modified_gmt":"2012-07-25T11:35:00","slug":"guest-post-mellissa-thomas-in-the-navy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/guest-post-mellissa-thomas-in-the-navy\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: Mellissa Thomas, “In the Navy”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/strong>
Can you even imagine your first job being in the Navy? That\u2019s Mellissa Thomas\u2019 story. She is\u00a0a freelance copywriter, copy editor, and blog junkie<\/a>\u00a0helping new and growing entertainment business entrepreneurs over at\u00a0E.i. Geek<\/a>\u00a0or blogging about writing at\u00a0MellifluityInc.<\/a>\u00a0When she\u2019s not doing that, she\u2019s promoting her newly released devotional poetry book,\u00a0From a Babe<\/a>, now available on Amazon.com and in the Kindle<\/span><\/i>

<\/span><\/strong>
My First Job: Bumbling Baby Christian Sailor<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Photo\u00a0<\/span>by<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>GregTimm<\/a><\/i><\/span><\/dt>\n

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I gave myself the oddest high school graduation gift in the form of my first paying job\u00c9by flying to Illinois for Navy boot camp on November 7, 2001. Now mind you, I had some work experience, but it was a volunteer job as gift store cashier at Plantation General Hospital in Florida. <\/p>\n

This decision, however, was radical. I was Abraham, tearing myself away from my family to go to a place I\u2019d never seen before, and immerse myself in a new culture. <\/p>\n

However, I admit there was no supernatural conference with God on this one. No nighttime star gazing with amazing promises of propagation. I just belly-flopped into this new life and took it one nail-biting day at a time (literally). <\/p>\n

Boot camp was a cyclone.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In hindsight it was benign compared to Army or Marine boot camp, but for an eighteen-year-old Christian girl who\u2019s never had a bona fide job before or ever encountered verbal abuse before, part of me wondered if I made a mistake, especially when they chopped my already shortened hair. <\/p>\n

Between the stress of living in a barracks with over eighty chatty girls and getting dropped and screamed on, I was driven to open my Gideon Bible (thank God for those little things) to Psalms 51, frantically praying David\u2019s repentant plea to God between trembling lips as the Windy City winter bit my bones in the middle of the night. <\/p>\n

By God\u2019s grace alone, I made it through and graduated in full dress blues glory before my proud family, despite a stealing incident among the girls in my division that nearly held us back. <\/p>\n

Then life began.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thankfully, true Navy life isn\u2019t all boot camp. I was a nervous wreck in logistics A-school, but even that training environment was less jarring.<\/p>\n

I learned true Navy life was like any job, just with uniforms, forced physical fitness, and lots of travel. We have office politics too, philandering is still prevalent (shocker), and peers become great friends.

<\/strong>
And yes, we drink. Often.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peer pressure rained bricks on me on my 21st birthday, because until then, my \u2018purity\u2019 marveled my friends: no drinking, sex, coffee, or smoking. \u201cHow do you live?\u201d they would ask me. \u201cBy getting up every day and living my life,\u201d I shrugged. <\/p>\n

That night, we went to the base club and they made sure I was the happiest girl there by paying for every pool game, and started me off with a White Russian. If you don\u2019t drink and don\u2019t know what that is, count yourself blessed. It\u2019s a delicious mixed drink that quickens every cell in your throat as it goes down; and my friends kept the drinks coming.<\/p>\n

So began my \u201csocial life\u201d as a young adult. No matter where I was stationed (Naples, Italy first, then Guam and all of east Asia), I did the typical sailor thing: clubs, alcohol, and cussing. I never lost my faith in Jesus (I was saved at thirteen), but boy did I misrepresent Him during those five years.

<\/strong>
As a baby Christian, the Navy was the most extreme indoctrination into the adult life I could have chosen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I always did my job well, earning 13 different ribbons and medals, but after boot camp, I didn\u2019t seriously open my Bible again until after I was discharged. However, in hindsight, I\u2019m grateful for every awkward experience, and yes, every sin I committed, because it all drew me closer to God while I served the country. As David reflects here<\/a>, I\u2019m better now because of it all.<\/p>\n

Please, share with a friend if you feel moved.
\nRead all past issues at http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can you even imagine your first job being in the Navy? That\u2019s Mellissa Thomas\u2019 story. She is\u00a0a freelance copywriter, copy editor, and blog junkie\u00a0helping new and growing entertainment business entrepreneurs over at\u00a0E.i. Geek\u00a0or blogging about writing at\u00a0MellifluityInc.\u00a0When she\u2019s not doing that, she\u2019s promoting her newly released devotional poetry book,\u00a0From a Babe, now available on Amazon.com […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[539,958],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mellissa-thomas","category-what-i-learned-from-my-first-job"],"yoast_head":"\nGuest Post: Mellissa Thomas, "In the Navy"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Can you even imagine your first job being in the Navy? 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