Phillip Scott is a senior at Apopka High. While most high school students work part time in retail or hospitality, Phillip has decided to take another route. He is one of few students who is currently in the military while also being in high school.
What is it like being in the military and high school at the same time?
It’s pretty good because of the benefits, but I feel like some days it’s more stressful because I have more responsibilities. There’s a lot of things I can and cannot do.
What made you want to join the military and why so early?
I wanted to start my life off early so I could prepare myself for the future, and I didn’t want to have to pay for college. I felt like joining would’ve been better for me. Also, my Dad, Uncle, and Grandpa were all in the military so I feel like that kind of pushed me.
Do you feel like you’re missing out on anything because of everything you do?
I missed out on around 3 months of my life and I miss a lot of my friends’ lives. I also missed 6 weeks of school so I missed a lot of my personal life too, and I missed out on my last summer.
What does your schedule look like being in both high school and the military?
I wake up, do my morning routine, check my emails because I have a military email and there’s updates I have to do. Then I’ll call my drill sergeant probably once a week because he has to check up on me and how I’m doing. Then I’ll go to school. I have to graduate or else I can’t keep doing the military, and then I’ll clutch up my work, then I go home, go to work, then I’ll do my military stuff on the weekends. That usually takes up a lot of my time actually. For the weekends that I have drill, I wake up everyday at 6 and then for Saturday and Sunday I go to drill but I wake up at 5, then we PT, then we run 2 miles, then we come back, we shower we eat, then we come back and run more and PT. It’s like basic training all over again. We also had free days where we couldn’t do anything. We had to stay upstairs in the bay but we couldn’t do anything.
How hard is it to balance military and school?
For the weekends, the ones that I have, it’s hard because I need to get schoolwork done, but also can’t because I’m doing drill. On top of that, I’m doing other stuff for the military so it gets hard sometimes.
Do you plan on continuing being in the military after high school or is there another profession you’re interested in?
I plan on continuing the military, just the national guard for the 25 years, and then I just got accepted into full sail university so I start September 30th.
