Wes Moore

So that was one thing.

But the second thing was I knew I wanted to lead soldiers.

Like I was sent to a military school when I was probably 13, 14 years old.

And I hated it at first, but it helped save my life.

And so I had a mandatory year in military school.

After that first year, my mother was like, all right, what do you want to do?

Because you're doing better in school.

Things are going well.

And I said, if it's okay, I'd like to sit tight.

I ended up finishing high school, military school.

I graduated as a cadet captain.

So I'm now 17 years old and I had 120 people under my command.

And when I thought about what I want to do with my life, I was like, you know what?

I think I want to lead soldiers.

And so I had a chance to go play basketball in college and get scholarship offers.

But I said, actually, what I really like to do is I want to join the Army.

And that was, I think, the reason the New York Times and them found it to be such an interesting story, because it's just not usually what a recruited high school basketball player does.

You know, honestly, I think the heart of what I believe in is what the Army taught me.

And it sounds simplistic, but it's actually not.

It's when we were 17 and we first joined,