The majority of students approaching their senior year of high school are aimlessly scrambling to complete their workload and get through college applications – trying to focus in on their future.  Few, however, choose to immerse themselves in a more literal call to arms: joining the military.

“What people don’t realize is it takes more than just a haircut and a physical to join the military,” said Lisa Sullivan, mother of enlisting senior Dustin Sullivan.  “And that doesn’t just mean push-ups.”

As of next fall, senior Adam Carroll will be attending United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point.

West Point’s purpose is to produce leaders of character who are prepared to provide selfless service to our Army and the nation. It provides a broad-based curriculum to ensure graduates acquire knowledge, and attributes necessary for them to address the complex and uncertain challenges they will face in their personal and professional lives, and is considered the beginning point of a career in the military.

“I want to give back to my community,” Carroll said.  “That’s one of the main reasons I’m enlisting, but at the same time I still want to be able to go to college.”

“This country has given so much to my family,” said Carroll, referring to his immigrant grandparents.  “I feel like it’s my job to give back for everything they’ve received.”

Seniors Dustin Sullivan and Noah Dorfman, who are also planning on enlisting in the near future, went down a similar path.  “It’s basically my job to serve for my father,” said Sullivan, whose father had lost his life while serving almost seven years ago.  “By risking everything I have, it’s my way of honoring who he was and what he did — to hopefully live up to him.”

Several years ago, Sullivan brought up the fact he’d wanted to enlist in the army to his mother.  He’d never seen his mother look so devastated.

“That was kind of the first time we’d talked about him since the year he’d passed and there were a lot of emotions going on for the both of us,” Sullivan said.  When his friends ask, he tells them he’s joining for other reasons, like to “protect and serve.”

Dorfman said he felt similar dedication. “I feel like it’s my job to defend my country,” he said.  “To defend people who can’t defend themselves and that’s something I’ve cared about since I was in 6th grade.”

According to Dorfman, his parents hadn’t wanted him to join, but he’d had his mind set on enlisting for far too long to accept compromise.  “I’ve wanted to enlist since 6th grade, when I learned about how much of a brotherhood the military provided,” Dorfman said.  “And when I told my parents about it, they were like, ‘No way,’ but they warmed up to the idea–I wouldn’t have taken ‘no’ for an answer.”

Carroll’s parents didn’t immediately agree over his enrollment either, but with his father’s support, he was able to take on West Point successfully.  “My dad showed me the school,” Carroll said.  Although he hadn’t planned on enlisting earlier on, after seeing the school and realizing how much he liked it, his plans for the future seemed to take a change for the better.  “After I thought about it for awhile, it seemed like the best possible thing I could do.”

“There are a lot of things I could think of doing that would benefit people around me,” Sullivan said.  “Frankly, enlisting was just my way of doing it.”

For the longest time, Dustin knew in the pit of his stomach that his mother, Lisa, would be against his being in the military. “She didn’t want me joining,” he explained.

After having to deal with the trauma of her husband’s death, Lisa tried to fight the thought of losing her son as well.  “Losing your husband is one thing.  But your son…” said Lisa, voice wavering.

The thought of her son, that was still so young, leaving and possibly never coming back made Lisa’s stomach twist up in knots. “Anticipating all of the horrible things that could happen to him keeps me awake at night,” Lisa said.  “I can still remember what if felt like picking up the phone to hear about my husband…I can’t go through that again.”

According to Dustin, he avoided bringing up his father at all costs, knowing how strongly his mother felt about it, but found that the time was right and it’d been long enough.  “I was expecting to [be] approached about his father–but for him to follow in his fathers footsteps…I could have never seen that coming,” Lisa said.

While Dustin was aware of what his mother thought, there was no doubt in his mind that this was exactly what he wanted.  “I knew this wouldn’t be easy for her,” Dustin said.  “But at the same time, I think she knew how much it meant to me and respected that, which is why I was able to enlist.”

Joining was clearly a big step–particularly for Sullivan, who risked hurting his mother in the process.  But Sullivan along with Carroll and Dorfman could all agree that joining was much more than just defending the country they grew up in–it was about defending everything they knew and believed in.

Read more here: Humanities students write letters to soldiers.

Updated May 30, 2013 at 8:30 p.m.