Since middle school, Destiny Boutchee has thought about joining the military. Only problem was, people kept talking her out of it.

“I was kind of listening to everybody else and that held me back and finally, I was like, ‘I am going to make my own decisions,’ so I just came in here,” she said recently, motioning to Lawrence’s Army recruiting office behind her.

In the next few months, the 21-year-old will head to South Carolina for eight weeks of boot camp. Then it’s training for her civil affairs position and on to her battalion. The plan is to go to Iraq to help establish the government there.

Boutchee is among the 250 people who have enlisted out of the Lawrence Army recruiting office since 2003.

Kansas is far from her California home. She came here to attend KU, where she studied journalism, advertising and sociology with a focus on prelaw. She took this semester off.

Her mother thinks the decision to enlist is “stupid,” Boutchee said. Others have told her that she is going to go to Iraq and die.

She’s not worried. She’s talked to soldiers who have been there.

“It was kind of like, ‘I could deal with it. I have been through a lot,'” Boutchee said. “It wasn’t like, ‘Oh no, I don’t want to go to Iraq and get shot.'”

In fact, when she talks about the start of her military career, her voice crackles with excitement. She laughs. Her smile doesn’t stop.

There is traveling around the world, a competitive environment and a job that isn’t behind a desk.

“I’m ready to go. I’m ready to leave tomorrow,” she said.