A top-tier athlete in both football and track and field, Gonzalez was in the best shape of his life. His grades were stellar. His community service and volunteering credentials were impeccable.
He collected mountains of personal paperwork, from his birth certificate to his inoculation records to his old report cards; filled out the seemingly endless forms and met all the deadlines; aced the SATs and the ACTs; procured all the requisite letters of recommendation; he even tackled the hardest part securing a formal nomination from a sitting U.S. congressman.
But when the U.S. Air Force Academy found a reference to childhood seizures buried in his medical records, years of forward momentum and planning ground to a sudden and perplexing halt.