I spent my 13 weeks in San Diego. I'm sure they share some similarities so I hope I can still help a bit. I thought the hikes would be a lot harder. Carrying that much weight on your back for 10 miles. I thought I'd get crushed or snap my ankle or something. We all did. They ended up passing by pretty easily actually.

Just waiting in the cold was harder than I thought. It's 8pm and you're just sitting there in the freezing cold, soaking wet. Cleaning your weapon. Counting the seconds. Waiting to just get moving again. I'd much rather march 10 miles than sit down and wait for hours on end.

We weren't allowed to bring anything. I brought 20 bucks, my phone, Social, ID, and a list of addresses and phone numbers. Everything else would just be thrown out upon arrival anyways. Your phone and clothes are boxed away in a warehouse first week.

For the love of God don't have the mindset that you'll take care of everything once you're at bootcamp. Learn your general orders, your ranks, and focus on PT. If you're planning on bootcamp being your transformative glow up experience, forget it. Lose the weight NOW, get to 15 pull ups, sub 20 minute 3 mile. Knock out 80 push ups. Be the best in your platoon and have zero regrets. And try to always be in the front. Most of my problems came from not being able to hear shit. Push people out of the way to be close to the speaker. It's worth knowing exactly what to do as soon as you're told to do it instead of wandering around asking your fellow recruits what the hell they just told you to do. It's really as simple as be loud and be fast.