How to Deal With Being Different at Basic Training

While doing research for my new book The Ultimate Basic Training Guidebook, I came across many recruits who naturally had fears and hesitations about boot camp. Many of those fears dealt with physical appearance, being too short or too tall, too overweight or too skinny, and so on. I always asked recruits where those fears originated and many said they stemmed from movies about boot camp, such as Full Metal Jacket. In the movie Full Metal Jacket, a particular recruit got ridiculed because he couldn’t keep up with his fellow recruits. He was overweight and not as smart as the rest of the recruits. In an infamous scene during the movie, he was physically beaten by his fellow recruits because of his inability to keep up with the others.

Many recruits today who have seen that movie, and others like it, can sympathize with that individual. Just about everyone now-a-days thinks they are either too skinny, too overweight, too tall, or too short. As a result, many recruits try to compensate for their so-called short comings. For example, someone who is overweight would compensate by overtraining at the gym. However, in most cases overtraining does your body more harm than good.

The key to conquering these fears is mental. As I emphasize in my book, mental toughness is the real battle in basic training, not physical toughness. If you are the shortest recruit at basic training, don’t dwell on what negative effects it could have. Instead, make a list of how that could help you. Drill sergeants want to make a soldier out of you; they are trained to make you strong mentally and physically. If a drill sergeant realizes that you are sensitive about being too tall, guess what s/he is going to harp on? You might even get a nickname that reflects your fear. How you deal with that will dictate your success and enjoyment at basic training. Basic training is as fun as you want to make it. If you want boot camp to be miserable, it will be miserable. If you want boot camp to be a learning experience, it can be that too. When you are at basic training, keep the big picture in mind. Be mentally tough and you will be successful.  

SGT Michael Volkin is the author of The Ultimate Basic Training Series