You find out that regardless of how shitty you are, they need bodies so, as long as you're not a 'troublemaker' and you just nod and keep your mouth shut, they'll either encourage you to get better or tolerate you and find something less technical for you to do, lol. I got along well with many of my higher ups in basic and I pretty much begged them to send me to a 'soft' regiment, so I ended up a sapeur de combat (combat engineer?) in 1REG, and then I begged/convinced the captain to allow me to go full POG (honestly, you don't want a myopic and clumsy soldier watching your back, lol) and halfway through the 3rd year I became a secretary. 👍

Also, that people who come from happy families and aren't desperate/broken/suicidal enough for basic to the first year or so to feel like an improvement in their lives have weekly mental breakdowns and quit/run away very easily. See, there's a silver lining to everything! 😅