After spending all four years of high school in ROTC, Jasmine Weathersby, a graduate of Tomball class of 2010, decided to take her military training to the next level – Army level.

“Master Chief (Cab Boston) always told us to do what we need to do right now for later, and I decided the Army was the best place for me to be,” Weathersby said.

June 15, just a week after graduation, Jasmine was heading to Fort Virginia for her AOT training.

“Going in, I was nervous, and didn’t know anyone,” Weathersby said.  “I didn’t know what to expect.”

After Fort Virginia, Weathersby was later stationed in South Carolina then in Jacksonville.

“My mother just kept asking me if I was sure that was what I wanted,” Weathersby said. “My dad, on the other hand, insisted that I go to the Navy.” 

“At first I thought she was kidding, so when she actually left I was really stunned,” Tomball graduate and close friend Kimberly Parker said.

Jasmine recently found out that she would be on her way to South Korea for an entire year. That’s a region of the world that has seen high tension with recent attacks and threats by North Korea.

“When I got the call that I would be going to Korea I wasn’t quite surprised, because I knew what I had signed up for,” Weathersby said.

She visited friends and family in Tomball, spending two weeks at home before leaving to catch a plane to Virginia, and then from there to South Korea.

Some only see the fighting part of the Army, but not all positions consist of carrying a gun, shooting bad guys or staking out behind sand dunes. In Weathersby’s case, she is a bit safer tucked away in the kitchen, cooking for her fellow soldiers.

Some might believe that military life is the hard life, non-stop working and no play, but that is far away from the case. Weathersby works Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., like any other job outside of the army. After her job has been done, she is free to go sightseeing and have a little fun on the weekend.

After being in Korea for a year, Weathersby will be eligible to send in her wish list to the service. A wish list in the Army is when a soldier can list three states and three overseas places they would like to be stationed, and if there is a spot that needs to be filled there, that soldier could be on their way to their dream location. Weathersby is hoping for Hawaii as an overseas place, and Georgia in the States.