Will I lose Advanced Enlisted Rank opportunities if I cancel my Delayed Enlistment?

You're pretty damn young, and the things that are important to you now won't be important in a little while. Of course, that doesn't make them feel less important now, and at your age a school year feels like an eternity. But as you get older time moves faster. The people you know in high school will be doing the same thing they're doing now in a few years. They're all going to get jobs or go to college and focus in their lives. Not everyone can stay at home with their parents and just enjoy life, most people will be working to pay rent, getting their girlfriends pregnant and working to scrape by. If you want to wait a year and watch everyone around you grow apart, if that's what it takes to walk away without regret, then go for it. I left the Army at 21 and spent several years traveling around, being a ski bum, and working in restaurants till I realized I wanted to actually do something with my life other than party. Then I came back in for a second round and have been killing it ever since.

As for your rank, it's garbage. Everyone who joins the Army will make E3 in a year. They'll all make E4 in 18-24 months. Your advancement is worth a few hundred dollars over the course of a year, if that.

As for advice from veterans and service members with previous experiences: your gf will leave you or cheat on you or you'll make a giant mistake and marry her then spend years paying child support for a kid you don't see. By the time you're old enough to drink a beer with you HS friends you won't be able to stand them and you'll be glad you didn't end up like them. Wait to get married till your older. Use your opportunity to move as far away from home as possible and experience a new culture and meet beautiful women, or men or whatever you're into and get a taste of life. Do not buy a Mustang or Dodge Charger on your first enlistment. These bits of knowledge are so common in the Army they are actually Army cliches.

Caleb Ludolph Welcome to RallyPoint. This is exactly the forum to ask questions like the one that you are asking. I will let other RallyPoint members answers your question.

SFC (Join to see)

I’m currently on recruiting duty now and if you were my future solider we would have a nice and long conversation. The feelings you’re having are completely normal. This doesn’t feel like the right time, but is there ever a right time? I strongly believe that too many times in life we wait “for the right time”. Every moment you wait, an opportunity passes you by. Your family is not going anywhere, they will still be there when you want to use your leave days to see them.
Your rank should be the least of your worries. And if coming an as an E3 trumps all of those things and you’ll ship if you lose it. You already have your answer. You want to do this, you’re just scared of the unknown and what’s to come. It’s completely normal, but I say do it man. Take the leap and start the career you set out to start. Don’t make the first desesion that you ever make as an adult one that you go back on. You’ll start a nasty trend that’s hard to get out of. Good luck!