My name is Leonardo. I'm a 17 year old high school senior who will graduate in May. I'm the first US-born son of Brazilian Immigrants (who are already naturalized btw) and I live in the suburbs of southern Florida. Unlike, many people here, I never a had a real 'sports' or 'physically active' background. For most of my life I was a morbidly obese video-game nerd who would just go to school, do well, and go back to grandma's house. Because of my weight (My heaviest was 262 at 15, 35% body fat) I was always picked on and picked last on the gym teams. As you can guess, I used to have self-esteem issues. It didn't help that my family were my biggest bullies! (Yeah, Brazilians are brutal like that
). But one day, I got fed up. I was in Brazil the summer before my junior year. It was my birthday, in fact, and my friends and family took me over to a local pizza parlor to celebrate. As I ate, I felt increasingly guilty until I decided enough was enough. I was fat, unhealthy, and lonely and had enough of it. I swore to lose 80lbs before my next birthday. 1 year went by, and I weighed in at 180lbs on my 17th birthday! It was by far the most physically and most mentally challenging thing I had ever done in that point in my life. But, I learned to love it. Working out and eating right grew on me and before you knew it I was a regular gym rat. I had confidence and self-esteem like never before and I swore I was never going back to my old ways.
At the start of this school year, my parents and friends kept asking what I was planning to do after high school. Most people assumed I was going to some big Ivy League school and be a doctor or whatever since I had always had straight As/ 4.0 GPA/high SAT and was seen as a mostly intellectual, non-athletic guy. But that wasn't how I felt at all. It's true that I'm still an intellectual person but I like to be active now and wanted to get out and see the world. I actually hated schooling all my life. I hated being seated and listening to teachers, taking notes and tests, blah blah blah. I just didn't feel like doing it for 4+ more years, but knew I probably had to and had no idea what I wanted to do. So I asked myself, "what do I want to do"? I didn't have a definitive answer, but I knew this:
1) The job must be away from a desk (lol)
2) It must be something meaningful, something I will look back on and be proud of.
3)It must be a challenge. Physically and mentally.
So I kept looking up what I could possibly do. Then it hit me, in church of all places. Join the military.
It was an unthinkable thought years ago, but it seemed totally possible now. It filled all my criteria and I became really interested in either Army or Marines. I totally understood it meant going in and perhaps never coming home, but I was ready and willing. As I learned about different aspects of branches of the military, I came across a History channel documentary about the U.S Army Rangers, their history, and their mission. After that, I was hooked. Yep, I didn't learn about Rangers from COD or Black Hawk Down (still haven't seen this movie), but from the History chanel!
I decided this is what I wanted, but my friends and family were quick to shoot me down. I still wanted to serve in the military, but they were afraid of me dying/ didn't think I could do it. We fought and fought until they convinced me to look at the Navy instead and I caved in. I initially went into a recruiting office trying to ask for some info maybe just see what they offered. But before I knew it, I was swearing in at MEPS as a Navy Nuke and not really happy at all. This all went down around October of last year. My recruiter was real slick. He talked and talked with my parents, getting their approval with all the big figures and all the potential for job opportunities afterward and stuff, which is great, but not what felt right to me. I tried to like the idea of being a Nuclear Engineer, but it really was the total opposite of what I wanted. So I thought "IDK maybe I can try to be a SEAL?". It was a combat job and all so it was as close as I was getting to be a Ranger, but the intrigue I had for Rangers wasn't there (No disrespect to SEALs tho! It pays to be a winner! :D ). I asked my recruiter if it was possible to switch later on and try out and he straight up lied and said yes. I later found out the truth. But that wasn't before I looked into all the training and started training that I found out so I wasted a lot of time (Not really tho). This went on until February with me just trying to like the idea of being a Nuke.
At this point, I was depressed. I was going into a hard job that wasn't doing anything for me besides giving me a pile of cash (which I don't even really care about) and couldn't fight for my country the way I envisioned. I thought about just finishing my 8 year contract (yes, 8 years!!!) with the Navy and just joining the Army after, but I learned that joining Rangers is not possible then. So I had to make an executive decision I should've made from the start. I requested discharge from Navy DEP and started working with an Army recruiter.
My dad was okay with it, but the rest of my family and friends were hating it. But I wasn't going to let them pick my life out for me. Right now I'm working with my recruiter to get an 11x Option 40 contract and he says he can probably get that for me. I don't plan to sign unless I get that. Thanks to months training to be a SEAL I established a solid running and swimming base. I used their SEAL PTG and still use several aspects of it in my training. I still kind of lack in upper body strength, but it's getting there.
I printed out several workout plans from the Fort Benning website on RASP and Ranger School and even I even found some SF workouts.
Right now I'm on the 12-week RASP plan and I'm on week 3.
I took a practice APFT the week before and got:
59 PU
61 SU (I usually get like 70+ on this event, but the person holding me down did a shitty job with just one hand)
13:08 2 mile
12 pull ups
Current measurements: 5'10" 170lbs with about 10% body fat.
I also did 5-miles in 37:26. I didn't do the full 12-mile ruckmarch because I've never tried ruckmarching before and didn't want to hurt myself. I did 3 miles with 45 lbs instead, but barely finished in under an hour and got serious blisters on my heels. I don't I have the right boots either. I have these black ones with a zipper on the side. I also haven't tried swimming with an ACU yet since I don't really have money/ don't know where to buy one.
Anyways, thanks for reading my intro! I realize it was long, but I felt that you'll all get a better picture of who I am this way. I know I should've just gone for what I wanted and joined the Army in the first place, but hey, it wasn't too late and I'm on my way. I know I've got a mountain to climb and that joining the 75th is not for the weak, but I wouldn't want it any other way. This path I'm choosing is scary and full of hurt, but I'm not surrendering. Surrender is not a Ranger word! I've still got a lot of improvement to make and a lot of learning to do, but I'm willing to go the extra mile.
Rangers lead the way!!!
