I shadowed ROTC member Nathan Kim, a third-year Korean American student studying economics and philosophy at the University of Chicago. From the moment he woke up at 4:50am, I documented him as he got dressed for the day, attended his ROTC lead lab and physical training, his philosophy classes, his work at a documentary film production lab, a lunch with an old high school friend, and a concert at one of the cafés on campus. By spending an entire day with a member of ROTC, I was hoping to deconstruct the biases I held towards that community.

During our time together, we spoke about his passions for film and for storytelling, about his upbringing in Virginia near the Appalachians, about his desires to visit Korea again. When the topic of ROTC came up, he explained that he had joined so that he did not burden his parents with the overwhelming price tag of higher education. I brought up my qualms with the military and he took his time to respond in a nuanced way. We agreed on some points, disagreed on others, but what I took away from that conversation was that members of the ROTC community are not the brainwashed, monoculture that I believed them to be. We talked about our dreams and our regrets and somewhere along the line, all the anxiety I came into the project with faded.

Apart from Kim, I met other members of ROTC and none of them fit the G.I. Joe stereotype I had built in my head. They were all friendly and pleasant to be around. I do not want this piece or these photographs to be read as an admiration piece for the U.S. military, I still disagree with much of what it has done and continues to do, but I do want to deconstruct the narratives around the students who are a part of ROTC. Brushing them off as carbon copies working solely towards the imperialist intentions of the United States is destructively reductive. Much like everyone else, they are kids in their late teens and early twenties just trying to make it through college, trying to make friends and learn about Spinoza’s ethics, trying to expand their perspectives, and in their own ways, make the world a better place. And if you disagree with the ways they go about that, talk to them, spend a day with them and try to deconstruct their reasonings, you will both grow from it.