Senior Josh Laverriere joined the Army creating many changes in his day to day life before even graduating high school.

Laverriere officially enlisted in the Army on July 24, 2015 a year before graduation, but has wanted to join for over five years. The military is a big part of his family’s history which means a lot to him.

“I knew I wanted to join the Army in the fifth grade,” said Laverriere. “It was because I wanted to join in my grandfather’s footsteps. They both served in the Army, so it’s like a family tradition.”

The process of joining the Army wasn’t as easy as most would imagine with paperwork, medical testing, and academic tests needed to be taken in order to enlist.

“I talked with my family, took the practice ASVAB and saw how I did on that,” said Laverriere. “My recruiter, Staff Sergeant Craig Arsenault, then gave me a packet papers to fill out before I went to take the real ASVAB.”

Once enlisted, Laverriere started to do what is called Future Soldier Training (FST) over the summer and into the school year. Future soldier training is held every Wednesday each month. Recruits are required to attend at least one training a month.

“Future Soldier Training is a lot of PT [physical training] and a lot of discipline,” said Laverriere.  “We do a two, two, two or a one, one, one for training. Which is two minutes of pushups, two minutes of situps, and a two mile run, or one minute of each of those.”

The training during FST is mainly PT, but over the course of the time, before Laverriere goes to Basic Training, he will learn other Army training subjects.

“Future soldier training covers a broad variety of topics whether it’s first aid, land navigation, military time, phonetic alphabet, rank structure, and of course PT,” said Arsenault. “PT being one of the biggest while it’s still nice out, we are trying to cram in as much of that as we possibly can before the weather snaps and turns snowy on us.”

When Laverriere started FST, he wasn’t putting 100% of the effort into his training, but when he kept at it his overall attitude changed.

“At the beginning I think I was pretty bad at it,” said Laverriere. “I wasn’t like all there. I kinda zoned out and didn’t really figure it was important. Now I’m stronger than I was I focus more and I can do more pushups I can run more than two miles.”

Before joining the Army, Laverriere considered grades to be not as important as he did after joining.

“I have something behind me to actually push me [to do better],” said Laverriere. “You know before the Army I was like ‘oh ok grades are slipping I can bring that up.’ Now that I have something pushing me [the Army] I’m like ‘ok I have got to get that grade up to do this’ that’s my goal.”

For Laverriere, having Arsenault there as more than just his recruiter helped to create a better relationship between soldier and future soldier.

“When I first met him, it was a very new applicant to the Army and a recruiter relationship,” said Arsenault. “What we like to see happen in this sort of thing is it develops and grows from there into more of a mentor relationship and that has definitely happened.”

While Arsenault may be a recruiter for the Army, he has also become a mentor for Laverriere. The relationship between the two has grown ever since the moment Laverriere enlisted.

“He has reached out to me for advice on several points, and I think I have done well or at least tried to do well as far as giving him points of advice that are not Army related,”  Arsenault said.

Not only is the Army style of life good at helping Laverriere meet new people, create better relationship, and grades it has done so much more in helping teach him respect.

For Laverriere, the love of his country has given him his way of life. The Army may not be for everyone, but it is for him.

“It makes me feel like I have a purpose in life,” said Laverriere. “It gives me a sense of accomplishment. I can actually do something to make a difference. I have a purpose in life protecting the people of the United States of America.”