“I will never join the army!” » I fumed to my friend with the sympathetic ear. I just finished speaking with a recruiter and said, “Please stop calling me!” A few weeks earlier, I was ready to commit and trade four years of my life in exchange for a college education, the chance to explore the world, build character, and simply because I didn't know what do something else with my life. The army recruiter was persistent and called every day. He told me that my life would have no meaning in the civilian world and that I would die regretting my choice. Later, because of this incident, I finally decided to join the Air Force (AF). It all started when I contacted the recruiter to ask about going into the engineering or medical field. We discussed bioengineering and he would guarantee the position if I signed immediately. When I arrived at his office, he tried to convince me to start a career in military intelligence. The sergeant even said that because of my appearance, they would send me to China as a spy for the United States. The idea didn't appeal to me, because my family emigrated from there for a reason. I asked him again to guarantee the bioengineer position but he admitted he couldn't. I concluded that military recruiters were not trustworthy. He was an Army recruiter, but I was certain I would never join any branch of the military. Over the next five years, I earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and then worked for two telecommunications companies. At both companies, I was responsible for developing equipment to increase the bandwidth of fiber optic cables. Sometimes I felt like the Army recruiter was right; I could die regretting my life and my lack of significant achievements ... middle of paper ... in networked weapons, burglar-proof electronics, and software-defined radio (SDR). This work ensures the AF has reliable battlefield information, the ability to communicate with our allies via SDRs, and protect our data systems from our adversaries. I am currently planning to move to Wright Patterson AFB to pursue a PhD in physics with follow-up. to Patrick AFB to work with satellites. I joined the team hoping to participate in a space-related mission and the AF ultimately agreed. AF gives me the opportunity to pursue my passion. In return, I can contribute through my research to improving our ability to conduct information warfare, nuclear operations, electronic warfare and to develop joint communications. I begrudgingly admit that the Army recruiter was right about job satisfaction. I didn't always get what I wanted in AF but it still worked.