James Posey Interview

James Posey Interview

Aries Robles, Contributor

Junior Aries Robles gets inspiration on a career path from an assignment for Mr. Robinson’s class  – interview someone with chose career path. She chose to write about her boyfriend, who is going into the army.  He inspired her because he knows what he wants to do and she was not so sure yet. “He inspired me to get into nursing because he is helping people for our country and I wanted to do the same,” Aries reported.

James Posey is a student who I met at Sahuaro High School. I first met him in our English class; I sat right behind him. He and I would occasionally talk, but we clicked more when video games were brought up. Very into video games, that’s how we began to converse more and build a friendship. That friendship then developed into a relationship between us. Randomly throughout our conversations, James and I would bring up our future plans and career choices.  That’s when I learned that after graduation, he will be shipped out into basic training for the U.S Army. As a child, he “didn’t necessarily know what he wanted to be”. He was a football player when he was younger, but he was also interested in guns and the military, so his choices came down to either Football or the Army. Ultimately, he chose to pursue the latter, and his grandfather influenced this decision.

James’ grandfather was an Army Soldier during World War 2 and he is also his childhood hero. Still to this day, his grandfather, as well as his father, are two of James’ biggest influences, besides himself. A motivated man who knows what he wants, James made the decision to enlist in the Army for his own well being. He thought this was the better choice for his life because he likes the fact that he can get “job-based skills without having to go to college.”

As a child, James considered himself to be “crazy and would have lots of energy” since he would always run around. He grew up not knowing what he wanted to be, but he enjoyed playing football and fixing things. Two of the most memorable moments he had in football was when he scored his first touchdown and when he shoulder checked someone and laid them out.

Although playing football in his youth is the majority of his memories as a child, James also developed his hobby of fixing things. One of the most memorable things that he fixed was a cooler with his dad. It was acting up one day, so James and his father took it apart and put it back together. Even now, his hobby of fixing things is still a large part of his life. Every now and then, his grandma will break something and then and he’ll fix it. Or she’ll show him a certain way she wants something and he’ll do it. “There was a grandfather clock that she had and I had to cut out a part of the wood on the top so it could fit.” His ability to fix things is something he considers as a strength of his. James has the skill to be able to take things apart and put them back together the way it was before, or even better than they originally were.

Although being a handyman is a strength of his, reading and writing are two of his weaknesses. He doesn’t consider himself a strong reader, but writing is something I feel that he is actually pretty good at. James tends to doubt his English class abilities, but he’ll easily fix anything that may be broken in any way, shape, or form. If given the choice, he would do hands-on work over writing assignments any day of the week. Assignments that weren’t hands-on is a reason why James didn’t really take school so seriously, which is one thing he would change if given the ability. He explained this to me when I asked him if he could ‘make any change in his life,what would that change be?’ His response was, probably taking school more seriously at first. Like elementary school kind of.”

Everyone has a choice made that they wish they could change, but not everyone lets that choice define them. James is a resilient person who doesn’t let his past define him. During our interview, I brought up the future and asked about how he saw himself ten years from now. His response was, “I don’t really know. I mean, it depends on if I stay in the military or not. Either based somewhere in the military or working in my skill I chose back in the U.S.” From the way he answered my question, I could tell that he was determined to have a bright path ahead of himself. He also explained to me that some of his future goals were to have a nice house and car, specifically a Jeep. One of the reasons that he chose to enlist in the Army is to achieve these goals. As of this moment, he has been focusing on prepping for the day he ships out to basic training. His prepping includes him working on his strength, which is something he is very proud of. In his words, “recently I’ve been focusing on trying to gain weight for the Army. So, focusing on strength and trying to get bigger. So yeah, strength, I guess.” I’ve seen this to be true since a lot of his time is spent talking about how he can gain more weight and increasing the amount of weight he is able to lift. Once James’ mind is set on something, he is determined to follow through with it until he believes he is happy with the results.

With basic training coming so soon, I asked him about what he was excited for and he told me, “Oh, that’s a hard question. Um, nothing. Actually getting the uniform because that’s going to be cool, but nothing else really. There is learning how to shoot, too, which I don’t know how to do.” From the answer that I received, I can tell that James is ready for the future and the career that he is choosing to pursue.

Going from a child who didn’t “think about the future at all” to a man who has his mind set on the Army, is James Delton Posey Jr., one of the greatest future soldiers I have ever had the chance to meet. With amazing people to look up to, his father and his grandfather, nothing can bring him down or keep him away from reaching the future that he wants for himself. He is his main motivator and he has a strong support system behind him, including myself, who won’t let him fall short from the wants he expects to reach.