FORT KNOX, Ky. — Cadet Lauren Zamarripa, assigned to Bravo Company, 2nd Regiment, Basic Camp, from Texas A&M Corpus Christi, had never really considered joining the Army.

Growing up with a father that served as a Marine and a brother that was in the Army, she had a good idea about how the Army worked long before she joined Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. But before she ever had her sight set on the Army, she aspired to become a nurse.

However, it was not until she saw a poster about how the Army needed nurses that she decided to look deeper into the idea, and it was only then that she came to a simple realization. That all of the women in her immediate family had gone into the medical field, whereas all the men in her immediate family had enlisted into the military.

But there was one thing missing == there was not a single woman in her family that had chosen the military route.

“So, I was like, ‘why not do both?’” Zamarripa said.

Until then, Zamarripa had no idea that pursuing both was an option, and it was in that moment that she decided that she wanted to be the first female to not only join the military, but also pursue a medical career at the same time.

However, her decision came as a surprise to her family. Not because they did not think she could achieve her goals, but because it was the last thing they expected from her due to how feminine she is in her civilian life.

“Outside of this, I am very feminine and would never be outside,” Zamarripa said. “I always have my nails done, have makeup on, [and] am always wearing bright[ly] colored clothes. So this is definitely out of my comfort zone.”

However, now that she is at CST, Zamarripa said that she has gained a deeper respect for the cadets around her.

But that is not the only clarity that Zamarripa gained after choosing to join ROTC. Not only has she realized that after she commissions, she will be the highest ranked soldier in her family due to ROTC, but she has learned that she has the potential to break the stereotypes surrounding the idea that feminine women can not be in the military.

“A lot of women think [that] you can not be feminine and be in the military as well, and I feel like that is a huge misconception,” Zamarripa said. “And I feel like if I am someone to say that, that that is the truth, because I never in a million years thought I would be doing this.”

In her battalion at home, her ROTC program has around 60 people, and only five of them are women, herself being one of them. She hopes that people, especially women, realize that the military is an equal opportunity career, no matter what.

“[It] does not matter if you are male [or] female, tall [or] short, bigger [or] smaller, everyone has the exact same opportunity,” she said.