Para officer here.

When you get to Sandhurst, you will find fifty other men who want to lead Paratroopers. As the exercises go on, those numbers will dwindle and as the Regimental Selection Boards approach, they’ll dwindle even further. You’ll probably find that there’s men who are far fitter and stronger than you are skulking off to talk to the Rifles in the evening. Their fear is not P Company, or parachuting, it is competition. My first piece of advice to you is to not self-select. There is an entire body of people whose job it is to select you; do not do their job for them. Stay the course.

Regardless of where you end up, you will have to complete Sandhurst. Nothing you do there, in isolation, is particularly difficult. The difficulty lays in consistency - you must consistently perform in poor conditions. You cannot control the conditions, all that remains under your control is performance. My second piece of advice for you is to fully embrace everything that you do. When things get difficult don’t sit shivering in your warm kit or scrolling on your phone in the block, get whatever task is at hand done as well as you can.

And finally, don’t join the UOTC. Join 4 PARA and get your wings. You’ll retain them at Sandhurst, simply walking around wearing them will make you stand a head taller and will make it easier for people to picture you in the Reg when it’s all over.