In his days at Wesleyan, Matt Ball ’08 was widely known around campus for his involvement in the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA), serving first in the Student Budget Committee (SBC) then as WSA president during his senior year. Recently, however, Ball decided to leave the meetings and paperwork behind in favor of a more adventurous vocation: the military.

Ball, like many Wesleyan graduates, spent the months after graduation working for Barack Obama, who spoke at their graduation urging his class to go into public service.
“My decision to work on the Obama campaign came from a desire to get him elected,” he said. “I was also looking for a job that would be both exciting and not permanent.”
Ball was stationed in Macomb County, a working class suburb of Detroit. One of his more harrowing experiences working for the campaign took place the night before Election Day, when three gun-wielding delinquents chased him while he was hanging reminders to vote on people’s doors.

“Campaign work is very well suited to experiencing bizarre and unusual things,” Ball said.

After Obama’s victory, however, Ball said he wanted to avoid spending his next few years languishing while trying to figure out what to do with his life. Instead, he made a decision that instantly separated him from most of his fellow graduates.

“I had been thinking about joining the military right after I graduated, but I knew that I wasn’t ready yet,” he said. “Then over the summer I realized that I am not at the point in my life where I can be happy in an office. I have an adventure-seeking itch that I really need to scratch.”

It was more than his thirst for adventure, however, that inspired Ball to join the military. While at Wesleyan, Ball learned to speak Arabic. He also developed an interest in the Middle East while studying at the University, and he went abroad to study in both Egypt and Yemen. He further explained that the role of US armed forces in the world has always intrigued him.

“Millions of people get their impressions of America from the conduct of our soldiers,” he said. “We give a lot of responsibility to our military to bear that image—I’d like to be a part of that.”

Ball will head to Fort Jackson, South Carolina in March for basic training, which lasts until May 15; from there he will move on to Officer Candidate School.