WEBVTT 00:06.820 --> 00:10.430 I'm originally from Nicaragua . II , I 00:10.439 --> 00:12.949 came to the United States in 2000 , but 00:12.960 --> 00:15.909 I joined the Navy in 2004 . I 00:15.920 --> 00:19.229 definitely did not know much of English . 00:19.239 --> 00:21.870 And definitely I learned a lot . I had 00:21.879 --> 00:24.690 great peers that helped me out 00:24.700 --> 00:27.840 throughout my career . And I also was 00:27.850 --> 00:30.072 able to gain my citizenship while I was 00:30.072 --> 00:32.830 in the Navy . So to me , the Navy has 00:32.840 --> 00:35.549 helped me a lot . I decided to join the 00:35.560 --> 00:37.504 military because I wanted to go to 00:37.504 --> 00:39.338 school . And I learned about the 00:39.338 --> 00:41.560 different programs that they offer such 00:41.560 --> 00:43.727 as the tuition assistant in Montgomery 00:43.727 --> 00:45.838 G I Bill . And I was able to actually 00:45.838 --> 00:47.560 complete my degree in business 00:47.560 --> 00:49.560 administration . I always wanted to 00:49.560 --> 00:51.560 work with engines . So that's why I 00:51.560 --> 00:53.727 went for it . I was on enlisted for 12 00:53.727 --> 00:55.740 years . And during that time , I 00:55.750 --> 00:57.861 learned so many different things from 00:57.861 --> 01:00.119 my peers , supervisors . The best thing 01:00.130 --> 01:02.241 about the in the community is that we 01:02.241 --> 01:04.463 are a small community that we take care 01:04.463 --> 01:06.630 of each other . If I have a question , 01:06.630 --> 01:08.852 I know I can actually go ahead and call 01:08.852 --> 01:11.019 somebody and they will be able to , to 01:11.019 --> 01:13.019 help me out , or at least they will 01:13.019 --> 01:15.720 point me to the right direction at the 01:15.730 --> 01:17.786 beginning . It's not normal to see a 01:17.786 --> 01:20.019 lot of females in the command . At 01:20.029 --> 01:22.269 least whenever I join right now we have 01:22.279 --> 01:24.809 more , uh , at least in the shop that I 01:24.819 --> 01:27.069 was in . Especially when I was at ad I 01:27.080 --> 01:29.480 was the only one , but definitely they 01:29.489 --> 01:32.790 treated me like a sister . We don't 01:32.800 --> 01:34.744 tend to label ourselves whether if 01:34.744 --> 01:36.919 we're females or males , we just take 01:36.930 --> 01:38.986 care of aircraft and trying to learn 01:38.989 --> 01:42.199 what we need to do , being able to get 01:42.209 --> 01:45.430 the job done . We don't just go black 01:45.440 --> 01:47.496 and white . We think about everybody 01:47.496 --> 01:50.330 else and everything around us . We 01:50.339 --> 01:52.669 wanna leave a legacy , we wanna keep 01:52.680 --> 01:55.629 progressing , we wanna be better and in 01:55.639 --> 01:58.889 order for us to uh do that , we need to 01:58.900 --> 02:01.470 keep inspiring people so we can become 02:01.480 --> 02:03.529 even better force . 02:06.919 --> 02:09.086 Well , I have done seven deployments . 02:09.086 --> 02:11.979 I love to travel and I have visited so 02:11.990 --> 02:13.934 many different places . So to me , 02:13.934 --> 02:15.990 that's a huge highlight because that 02:15.990 --> 02:18.212 was something that I was not gonna able 02:18.212 --> 02:21.289 to get . If I just got a different job 02:21.710 --> 02:24.160 as an enlisted as a maintainer . My 02:24.169 --> 02:26.839 biggest highlight there was that when I 02:26.850 --> 02:28.961 was able to actually fix the aircraft 02:28.961 --> 02:31.820 and see it actually fly . It was really 02:31.830 --> 02:35.770 rewarding as an officer . Uh 02:35.779 --> 02:38.110 being able to take care of my sailors 02:38.119 --> 02:40.470 and work together with the other 02:40.479 --> 02:43.699 enlisted sailors . And that to me is 02:43.710 --> 02:45.877 really rewarding is one of the biggest 02:45.877 --> 02:48.320 highlight for me to be able to help if 02:48.330 --> 02:50.750 you wanna go for it , just go for it . 02:50.789 --> 02:53.490 I can tell you that I have had a great 02:53.500 --> 02:57.029 career . We have our challenges , 02:57.169 --> 02:58.729 but it's really rewarding .