MRU student shares military experience
Bella Coco, News Editor
While most post-secondary students tend to opt for a part-time job that can work cohesively with a first-priority school schedule, Daniel Gonzalez has found his path off campus and on base.
Gonzalez, a third-year business student at MRU, has been serving in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) for a year and a half. He said that after a conversation with a navy recruiter, he decided to join the army and had the enrolment papers signed the next day.
The workload between school and the military, at least initially, was more manageable than expected.
“The commitment is once every 60 days for a Wednesday, and then 10 full days a month or a year. That’s the minimum. Basic training was also pretty chill. I mean, you can do part-time, like a bunch of other people, or you can do it full-time, which is around four weeks in the summer. I did the four weeks,” Gonzalez said.
Because of his ongoing post-secondary education, Gonzalez was able to choose to enrol as an officer instead of a Non-Commissioned Member (NCM).
“A bunch of the NCMs are off or are in university. One of our sergeants is actually getting his PhD in microbiology, so it’s no longer just the degree that allows you to be an officer,” Gonzalez explained.
While the school-work-life balance can be difficult at times, Gonzalez said the challenge has provided him with a path, and that the CAF is now his number one priority.
“I mean, without the army, I had no drive in school. It provides you with structure and offers workarounds. It’s like, ‘Okay, I have to do this over the weekend. I have to do this on Wednesday. Now, when can I fit in my schoolwork? Oh, shoot, I have work now. I have to do that, it’s work that I cannot miss. Okay, now I have to do my schoolwork,’” he said.
Gonzalez said he would “100 per cent” recommend the military for those who are looking for structure, but he did wish he had gained more experience before becoming an officer.
“I don’t regret becoming an officer. But I wish I had gained the experience of an NCM in university because, as an NCM, especially as a private, the work expectations are a lot less. It’s very manageable in school as an officer,” Gonzalez explained. “However, the expectations of you are significantly lower as a private compared to an officer. When you’re in university, you can gain that life experience to gain what the troops go through. That’s something I find that I’m missing out on.”
However, officer or not, the CAF has provided Gonzalez with connections for a lifetime.
“The friendships you make under stress are entirely different from any other friendship you make. One of my best friends, Tristan Box, I did basic [training] with him. I only knew him for one day before meeting him on basic, where he was my fire team partner, and now it feels like he’s my brother. It’s an entirely different kind of friendship that you form under stress.”
As of last August, Gonzalez was promoted to second lieutenant and has begun thinking about his next steps after graduating from MRU.
“I might go to regular force. Currently, I’m in the reserves, so the King’s Own Calgary Regiment. But I might go full-time and join the Lord Strathcona’s Regiment, which is in Edmonton. It’s my game plan because you can do it with any degree,” he said.
