It has taken nearly 4 years from the first time I talked to recruiters to finally be able to say I am going to be joining the CF family.
It started my first year in college when a recruiter had come to my class and talked about the option of being a Military Police officer (my program was Police Foundations). That spring (2005) I decided to apply for the reserves. After going through the whole process I was denied medically because that February I had been diagnosed with patellofemoral syndrom (soft cartilage under my right knee cap), and my family doctor had wrote that I need to wear a brace on my knee all the time. I was both mad and disappointed at the start but the more I thought about it, I realized that I wasn’t completely ready for both the mental and physical challenges.
Then this past February after graduating in the spring of 2007 and having been working as a security office at Research In Motion I decided to try again. I had been working with a personal trainer and hadn’t worn the brace in over two years. After getting the initial paperwork going I was told that I needed a note from my family doctor saying that my knee was healthy now. Took me a month to get in to see him. After that I saw the medical staff at the recruiting office and they said I now needed to get a note from my optometrist because my vision had changed. Took two weeks for that and finally at the beginning of May my medical file was off to Ottawa for review. Nearly a month later it came back and my note from the optometrist hadn’t made it into the file so it was added and sent back to Ottawa a second time.
Finally by mid-June I was cleared medically. Then is was two weeks of waiting for the official letter to be able to schedual the interview. But the day before the interview they called saying that it needs to be rescedualed for the next week. After the interview on July 16th, things moved fast. Reference and background checks were done and I got the job offer today and course start date of August 18th for BMQ.
Being able to read other peoples stories as well as some of the other forums has provided me with the information and the determination through this long process to keep pushing for the next step. I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone.
Amanda Cassidy
It started my first year in college when a recruiter had come to my class and talked about the option of being a Military Police officer (my program was Police Foundations). That spring (2005) I decided to apply for the reserves. After going through the whole process I was denied medically because that February I had been diagnosed with patellofemoral syndrom (soft cartilage under my right knee cap), and my family doctor had wrote that I need to wear a brace on my knee all the time. I was both mad and disappointed at the start but the more I thought about it, I realized that I wasn’t completely ready for both the mental and physical challenges.
Then this past February after graduating in the spring of 2007 and having been working as a security office at Research In Motion I decided to try again. I had been working with a personal trainer and hadn’t worn the brace in over two years. After getting the initial paperwork going I was told that I needed a note from my family doctor saying that my knee was healthy now. Took me a month to get in to see him. After that I saw the medical staff at the recruiting office and they said I now needed to get a note from my optometrist because my vision had changed. Took two weeks for that and finally at the beginning of May my medical file was off to Ottawa for review. Nearly a month later it came back and my note from the optometrist hadn’t made it into the file so it was added and sent back to Ottawa a second time.
Finally by mid-June I was cleared medically. Then is was two weeks of waiting for the official letter to be able to schedual the interview. But the day before the interview they called saying that it needs to be rescedualed for the next week. After the interview on July 16th, things moved fast. Reference and background checks were done and I got the job offer today and course start date of August 18th for BMQ.
Being able to read other peoples stories as well as some of the other forums has provided me with the information and the determination through this long process to keep pushing for the next step. I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone.
Amanda Cassidy
