What I’ve Learned: Deochan D. Narain

Twentynine Palms -- My extended family lives in Canada and America, my immediate family lives in Guyana, South America.

My dad’s religion is Hinduism and my mom’s is Christianity. My parents respected each other’s religions so they got along great. My brothers and I grew up Christian, but we were taught to respect others’ religions.

My dad has been working as a guard for a pump station since I could remember. My mom is a seamstress; everyone in the village comes to her to get their cloths mended, to get taken in, and to get buttons fixed.

As a kid I would climb coconut trees with my friends, play volleyball, swim in the lake, we made a lot of things out of scratch, such as kites and tents. We didn’t have technology in Guyana so I spent most of my time outside playing with my friends.

As a kid, my candy was fruit, I loved all kinds of fruit especially coconut, breadfruit and mango. Every year on Christmas I would get real candy, such as chocolate.

My uncle and cousin were Marines and I would hear stories about what they did. I heard that my cousin was a Marine Security Guard or MSG, at embassies. Every Christmas my brothers and I would ask for pellet guns, so we could play and pretend that we were in the military. We would make our own homemade bullet proof vest made of cardboard. There were lots of trees in my backyard so we would climb them and use them for cover.

I started high school a year early so most of my classmates were older than me. In Guyana we only have 11 grades in schooling so I ended up graduating at age 16.

In high school I was in the chess club and the volleyball team. With the chess club I was able to travel all over the country to compete against other schools. My favorite part was making friends and then getting to see each other the following year in tournaments.

I really love the Marine Corps; I especially love how challenging it is. When I first came to the fleet I wanted to do everything. I wanted to get my pistol badge, I wanted to be a coach, and I wanted to get my black belt as soon as possible. I also challenged people around my shop to see who got the most MCI’s done, and who got the best PFT and CFT scores.

Since I push myself to be the best I can I got put on Marine of the Quarter board for Headquarters [Battalion], after winning that I was put on the Marine of the Quarter board for the base, were I competed against Marines from Marine Corps Communication-Electronics School, Marine Corps Logistics Operations Group and Exercise Support Division. All of those things helped me receive my meritorious promotion to corporal.

I was supposed to leave to boot camp in December 2015, but an open contract spot position opened up in June so I took the opportunity. I chose to leave early because I didn’t want my brother to become a Marine before me.

I really want to travel the world after the Marine Corps, I have been thinking about getting a job that lets me explore the world then getting a job in law enforcement afterwards, like police officer or a security guard.

I love to challenge people who are better than me so that I can get better; I love to challenge people who are worse than me so that they can get better, and to challenge people who are at my level so that we can both get better.