Brad Durkin never really liked ceramics class and found little joy in watching the clock count down his final high school days. So, instead of spending months counting to a graduation ceremony he didn’t consider particularly important, Durkin marched into his principal’s office with an odd proposal.
Durkin arrived on Parris Island, the Marine Corps Recruit Depot near Beaufort, S.C., less than 24 hours after his makeshift diploma became binding. The life-changing sequence of events was anything but a rash decision by a confused teenager.