![Dale Earnhardt Jr]()
Gotta think that was quite the culture shock.
Growing up the son of the legendary
Dale Earnhardt, you probably didn't have to worry about much. I mean obviously Earnhardt was a strict father, and I'm sure he never let his son
Dale Earnhardt Jr. get away with being lazy or just coasting by on his name. But going to military school had to be a completely different experience from the life he was used to.
At the age of 12, Junior was having some problems behaving at school - so his dad and stepmother, Teresa, sent him to Oak Ridge Military Academy in their home state of North Carolina.
Junior has talked some about his time there, and his struggles being separated from his family. But on today's "Ask Jr." episode of his podcast,
The Dale Jr. Download, he opened up on his feelings when he first got shipped off to military school:
"There's not many kids that would go that didn't cry the first two weeks. Terribly homesick.
Just the oddest feeling. You're 12, 13, 14 years old and your parents don't want you at home? You're struggling with this like, 'Why do you want to send me away? Why don't you want me with you where you are? Is your life so busy?'
And all the kids there had that reaction. They were all pissed at their parents for being put in this position, and felt less valued."
Of course he eventually settled into his new home, and admits that it helped him become more disciplined and able to take care of himself:
"You're in military school and it's like, you gotta brush your teeth. You gotta get your hair cut. You had to have your hair cut a certain way and it had to fit the certain parameter, and you had to go get it done. You had to schedule it. You picked up your mail, you mailed off your mail back home, because there weren't phones and stuff...
You had to learn to handle things. If you were in a house like I was where you were used to everything being done for you and you just worried about going and eating, and that's all you had to worry about was getting food out of the fridge, it was great, because I learned a lot of responsibility."
Junior eventually transferred back to public school, graduating from Mooresville High School in 1992 as he was beginning his racing career. But he says that he wanted to graduate from the military school - and probably would have if it hadn't been for racing:
"I really wanted to, and might have went and done it, I really wanted to go graduate from Oak Ridge. I wanted to have a final year at Oak Ridge because of how I felt like it had helped me...
I wanted to go back and finish my last year there, but I also knew that I would take myself out of an opportunity to race, which I didn't want to do. So I think if racing hadn't been in my life I might have finished my high school career in military school."
It seems like things worked out pretty well for him regardless, but you have to wonder how different things would look if Junior had graduated from military school - and potentially put off his racing career - instead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPI6EQXJtJ4
