This is a story I put up on myspace forever ago, its from the beginning of plebe year. I thought it was on here but some of you don't know the story so here it is:
Ok, so for those of you who aren't cadets, this might be a good story, but I'm writing it more for cadets and those who want to become cadets. this is a lesson I learned the hard way in the past week, learn from my mistake.
When you go to the health clinic, and they put you on profile, especially against your will, obey the profile.
Plebe beating, I mean PE 116-Boxing, is a required course, there's no way out of it. If you get Dr. Barone, I'm sorry, just don't be late, screw around, or get put on profile and you should be fine.
I've been sick for about a month now. At one point, I was 'better' and thought that was the end, but Water Polo tryouts almost killed me, and my roommates finally convinced me to go to sick call and get medical help. I woke up at five, the clinic was closed. oh well, get my shower done so i won't have to do it later. . .
5:30, still closed. . .
0600 the clinic finally opens. I go in and wait in line forever, just to be told to go back to my room and make an appointment for later in the day. So I go back to my room, and have very little time before breakfast formation. Obviously I haven't had the time to learn the meals for the day, look at the days, or read the news. I'm at my first sergeant's table for breakfast table, oh crap, now what? maybe he won't ask. . .
after breakfast we were supposed to(we being all the plebes at the table and their team leaders) report to 1sgt's room at 0640 the next morning.
i look at my schedule for the day, the only time i can go to sick call that they have an opening is at 10:30, leaving me little time to get across cadet area to Arvin(the building) for boxing class. Dr. Barone is a jerk about bein late, so I fire off a quick e-mail telling him, basically, that I'm screwed and i'll try to make it to class on time.
I make it to boxing, barely in time to explain that the clinic just put me on profile. Short version of Dr. Barone's response: "MEAT HEAD, IF YOU MISS THIS CLASS TODAY AND FRIDAY, I'M GONNA DROP YOU FROM IT AND YOU GET TO TAKE STAP(summer school)!!!"
So being the wise guy that I am, I call the clinic and make them change my profile to let me box. . .big mistake.
Apperantly when you get hit in the nose with a sinus infection, it hurts about ten times worse, and bleeds really easily/bad.
To make things better, the closest person(in weight) to me in the class is about 20 pounds heavier, and has years of martial arts training(fast reflexes, knows how to take and give a punch?)
Add insult to injury, when I got back to my barracks from boxing, lunch formation was already formed up. Everyone noticed the bloody, half dead looking plebe walking by. Luckily there was an entrance close by, so I was able to dodge most people.
While washing the blood from my face, I noticed that it was all over my body and that I was gonna hafta shower to get it off. By the time I'm out of the shower and in uniform, lunch is over, but the mess hall is still open. So I take off running to try and get some lunch, and run into one of the sergeants from my table.
"Where were you!!!" she yelled at me.
Oh, joy, now I'm gonna get yelled at for not showing up to a mando(mandatory) meal. Luckily, upon hearing my pathetic story, she takes pitty on me and lets me go.
Oh yeah, while I was lucky enough to have a free period after lunch, that was supposed to be spent finishing my HI 103 homework for the period after that. Crap, now i'm gonna get in trouble for not finishing that too. . .
Hahaha, it was a long day, but i survived. There are many morals here: as bad as you think you(civilians) have it, it could be worse(ie: you could be in the USCC); if you stick it out, things get better(we had a football game that night, life was fun for a while); and, probably the most important, OBEY YOUR PROFILE!!!!
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
YWW
Every year each class at the academy gets a weekend to celebrate. Last year was Plebe Parent Weekend, this year was Yearling Winter Weekend- a big dinner/dance weekend for everyone to bring dates to and socialize with people from the outside (since 4 years here tends to make one very socially awkward otherwise).
At first, just for someone to bring, I had invited my ex-girlfriend to be my date for the event since she is already out here and it would be much cheaper. After a couple of months of neither of us saying anything, I had decided that I really didn't want to bring her and that seemed okay because she hadn't said anything about it. In fact I was toying with the idea of spending the money to invite someone from home, a girl I had liked in high school and had recently gotten back in contact with. Then one day, out of the blue, the dance came up while I was talking to my ex. She ended up inviting some of her friends and I was stuck trying to find dates for them all. Didn't work. Trying to find dates for this kind of thing that late in the game was impossible. Finally I gave up and just asked her if I could take someone else. I spent the money and invited Emma Nielson, the other girl I had been thinking about taking.
There were many reasons not to invite Emma. One was the timing; I'm getting ready to go on a mission and after that I have two more years of academy life (most likely) so it wasn't the most ideal time to get into a new relationship. Plus there was the thing with inviting Andrea. While I feel bad about that, the timing could prove problematic, and it was expensive it was entirely worth it. We had a wonderful time! But we never really did anything.
Friday night we watched a movie, ate dinner, watched a movie and went to bed.
Saturday we drove. A lot. We got in the car (borrowed from a gracious firstie whom I still have yet to meet in person) and just drove and talked. After a while we stopped to eat and then drove to a dunkin' doughnuts for hot chocolate. We just talked, about everything. It was a very bizarre feeling to be sitting in a doughnut shop in New York talking to the girl that had caused so much angst in high school- and we even talked about that. After hot chocolate we had to go gas up. We had gone through an entire tank of gas! We decided to hit the mall (at this point, though it was great to just talk, I was feeling bad for not actually doing anything). When we got to the mall though, we ended up just walking around the mall, talking again. We didn't go see a movie like we planned, or any of the other events I had planned for us to potentially do that day but it was ok, we had more fun this way.
After the mall we went back to the point. She got ready for the dance and I sat and talked to her while she did her hair. When it was time, I went and got ready. We almost didn't plan enough time for her and we got into a time crunch looking for an iron for her dress. The solution? Bring her to the barracks and borrow an iron from my neighbors. In the mad dash to make it to the mess hall on time her stuff ended up scattered around my room. We went to the dinner and the dance and came back to my room to gather her stuff and go. Time passed as we were talking to my roommate and suddenly it was taps. After taps they always come around and check to make sure we are in our rooms. Unfortunately, they don't like finding a girl in your room gathering her stuff. Luckily, when the situation was explained I ended up with virtually no punishment.
I took her back to my sponsor's house (where she was staying) and we sat on the couch cuddling and talking until 6:30 in the morning when we saw the time. Getting up for church the next morning was fun!
After church we were a little slower getting on the road than planned and she would not have made her flight if we used the trains and subways so I ended up just driving her to JFK. I can now say I've driven in New York City. In someone else's car. Wouldn't suggest it, but it worked out fine. The drivers here aren't as bad people seem to expect.
It was a wonderful weekend. The money side of it worked easier than expected and we had an amazing time, in spite of not really doing anything. It was all worth it. Much more than worth it.
At first, just for someone to bring, I had invited my ex-girlfriend to be my date for the event since she is already out here and it would be much cheaper. After a couple of months of neither of us saying anything, I had decided that I really didn't want to bring her and that seemed okay because she hadn't said anything about it. In fact I was toying with the idea of spending the money to invite someone from home, a girl I had liked in high school and had recently gotten back in contact with. Then one day, out of the blue, the dance came up while I was talking to my ex. She ended up inviting some of her friends and I was stuck trying to find dates for them all. Didn't work. Trying to find dates for this kind of thing that late in the game was impossible. Finally I gave up and just asked her if I could take someone else. I spent the money and invited Emma Nielson, the other girl I had been thinking about taking.
There were many reasons not to invite Emma. One was the timing; I'm getting ready to go on a mission and after that I have two more years of academy life (most likely) so it wasn't the most ideal time to get into a new relationship. Plus there was the thing with inviting Andrea. While I feel bad about that, the timing could prove problematic, and it was expensive it was entirely worth it. We had a wonderful time! But we never really did anything.
Friday night we watched a movie, ate dinner, watched a movie and went to bed.
Saturday we drove. A lot. We got in the car (borrowed from a gracious firstie whom I still have yet to meet in person) and just drove and talked. After a while we stopped to eat and then drove to a dunkin' doughnuts for hot chocolate. We just talked, about everything. It was a very bizarre feeling to be sitting in a doughnut shop in New York talking to the girl that had caused so much angst in high school- and we even talked about that. After hot chocolate we had to go gas up. We had gone through an entire tank of gas! We decided to hit the mall (at this point, though it was great to just talk, I was feeling bad for not actually doing anything). When we got to the mall though, we ended up just walking around the mall, talking again. We didn't go see a movie like we planned, or any of the other events I had planned for us to potentially do that day but it was ok, we had more fun this way.
After the mall we went back to the point. She got ready for the dance and I sat and talked to her while she did her hair. When it was time, I went and got ready. We almost didn't plan enough time for her and we got into a time crunch looking for an iron for her dress. The solution? Bring her to the barracks and borrow an iron from my neighbors. In the mad dash to make it to the mess hall on time her stuff ended up scattered around my room. We went to the dinner and the dance and came back to my room to gather her stuff and go. Time passed as we were talking to my roommate and suddenly it was taps. After taps they always come around and check to make sure we are in our rooms. Unfortunately, they don't like finding a girl in your room gathering her stuff. Luckily, when the situation was explained I ended up with virtually no punishment.
I took her back to my sponsor's house (where she was staying) and we sat on the couch cuddling and talking until 6:30 in the morning when we saw the time. Getting up for church the next morning was fun!
After church we were a little slower getting on the road than planned and she would not have made her flight if we used the trains and subways so I ended up just driving her to JFK. I can now say I've driven in New York City. In someone else's car. Wouldn't suggest it, but it worked out fine. The drivers here aren't as bad people seem to expect.
It was a wonderful weekend. The money side of it worked easier than expected and we had an amazing time, in spite of not really doing anything. It was all worth it. Much more than worth it.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Jury Duty
"A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal nor tolerate those who do."
-USMA Cadet Honor Code
The honor code is a very serious thing at the academy. A good illustration of this is the movie Codebreakers which is based on a true story in which the majority of the Army football team was caught violating said code and kicked out.
Last week, I was "randomly selected" to be on an honor board. The whole thing could have easily been cleared up if the teacher reporting the violation would have simply taken 2 minutes of her time to talk to her students and actually figure out what was going on. Instead 9 cadets on the board, the board president (also a cadet), the respondant (defendant in normal court), his cadet advisor, and a handful of cadet witnesses had to miss a day of school to go and try to sort out what happened. Not to mention the JAG attorney and court reporter who had to be present. That's a lot of wasted man hours and it doesn't even figure all the investigative time involved before the case even came to court! 0830-1630-8 hours each. In high school the opportunity to get out of class would have been welcomed but here? seriously? you want me to miss my classes? 2 minutes of her time, that's all it would have taken to clear this up. But I'm not bitter...ha!
Anyways, the teacher (a civilian who lost her contract to teach at the academy at the end of the semester...I wonder why?) assigned a project which was and administrative nightmare. The class was to design a week long workout with the purpose of moving toward an individual goal they had set earlier in the class. Upon completing the workout, the teacher collected them and passed them back randomly for someone else to actually do the workouts and assess how well designed the program was. In order to assure an unbiased assessment, the programs were submitted anonymously- no names! The teacher used absolutely no system to track which paper belonged to which student. Needless to say, more than a month later when the students were getting their papers back there was some confusion. The student in question claimed to have assessed a paper, and the teacher didn't believe him and reported him for an honor violation stating that the student was absent the day the papers were turned in (false) and that the handwriting on the paper didn't match that of the student (which it obviously did when we made him write the exact same comments in the court room- stylistically and misspellings). Both statements were entirely false. Upon questioning her, she stated that another student had actually done the work so we pulled him out of class and questioned him. When we showed him a photocopy of the paper his response was "This definitely isn't mine. The handwriting isn't mine, the workout isn't mine, I've never even seen this before." Hmm, I certainly trust this teacher after that.
The hardest part was figuring out exactly what the teacher was claiming. Deliberation took all of 10 minutes, more than half of which was spent talking about how inept the teacher was rather than whether the kid was guilty or not-he was obviously innocent).
Jury duty is a pain in the butt. Thankfully we finished in one day but that day was still shot. Thanks unnamed instructor for wasting my time- cadets just have so much of it in the middle of the week ya know?
-USMA Cadet Honor Code
The honor code is a very serious thing at the academy. A good illustration of this is the movie Codebreakers which is based on a true story in which the majority of the Army football team was caught violating said code and kicked out.
Last week, I was "randomly selected" to be on an honor board. The whole thing could have easily been cleared up if the teacher reporting the violation would have simply taken 2 minutes of her time to talk to her students and actually figure out what was going on. Instead 9 cadets on the board, the board president (also a cadet), the respondant (defendant in normal court), his cadet advisor, and a handful of cadet witnesses had to miss a day of school to go and try to sort out what happened. Not to mention the JAG attorney and court reporter who had to be present. That's a lot of wasted man hours and it doesn't even figure all the investigative time involved before the case even came to court! 0830-1630-8 hours each. In high school the opportunity to get out of class would have been welcomed but here? seriously? you want me to miss my classes? 2 minutes of her time, that's all it would have taken to clear this up. But I'm not bitter...ha!
Anyways, the teacher (a civilian who lost her contract to teach at the academy at the end of the semester...I wonder why?) assigned a project which was and administrative nightmare. The class was to design a week long workout with the purpose of moving toward an individual goal they had set earlier in the class. Upon completing the workout, the teacher collected them and passed them back randomly for someone else to actually do the workouts and assess how well designed the program was. In order to assure an unbiased assessment, the programs were submitted anonymously- no names! The teacher used absolutely no system to track which paper belonged to which student. Needless to say, more than a month later when the students were getting their papers back there was some confusion. The student in question claimed to have assessed a paper, and the teacher didn't believe him and reported him for an honor violation stating that the student was absent the day the papers were turned in (false) and that the handwriting on the paper didn't match that of the student (which it obviously did when we made him write the exact same comments in the court room- stylistically and misspellings). Both statements were entirely false. Upon questioning her, she stated that another student had actually done the work so we pulled him out of class and questioned him. When we showed him a photocopy of the paper his response was "This definitely isn't mine. The handwriting isn't mine, the workout isn't mine, I've never even seen this before." Hmm, I certainly trust this teacher after that.
The hardest part was figuring out exactly what the teacher was claiming. Deliberation took all of 10 minutes, more than half of which was spent talking about how inept the teacher was rather than whether the kid was guilty or not-he was obviously innocent).
Jury duty is a pain in the butt. Thankfully we finished in one day but that day was still shot. Thanks unnamed instructor for wasting my time- cadets just have so much of it in the middle of the week ya know?
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Way behind
I was talking to a friend about blogging and realized that I am way behind on the whole "keeping people updated on my life" thing. Christmas break, reorgy week (reorganization week), a lot has been happening and changing. Yet things are still fundamentally the same. Here I sit in my little gray cell late at night typing about the humdrum of everyday life while my roommates are sound asleep in the background. I'm still a "bitter yuc" eagerly awaiting the next opportunity to escape-at least in some degree-academy life (Yearling Winter Weekend, 16 days-not that I'm counting).
Winter Leave (more commonly known to other schools as winter/Christmas break) was amazing. I had to spend the night in the airport, but managed to get out of NYC only one day behind schedule-much better than most of the people who were waiting there with me. I spent two days sleeping. Literally. At the end of the second day looked down and realized that the only time I had been out of my pajamas was to shower. The next day was Christmas! It was a great day and I was given tons of cool stuff to help traveling/spending nights in airports much more tolerable. That weekend I started hanging out with friends and spent pretty much the rest of my time at home hanging out/catching up with old buddies from what seems forever ago.
Unfortunately, it came to an end and I returned to the point. We had three days of reorgy week to get moved in, buy books, find classes and generally re-acclimatize to life here. My roommates and I stayed together in the same room so moving was easy, I just pulled my stuff out of the closet but it was still a long three days.
I have a new plebe. This time, HE doesn't fit into any of the categories of my previous plebe. The emphasis for what I am supposed to teach this semester is Buckner-prep and other military type stuff- which my new plebe openly admits is his weak point making life easier for me when trying to come up with things to talk about. My leadership style is to take people on an individual basis as much as possible rather than a one size fits all attitude so I asked him what he wants from me and his answer was a hands-off leader. Great! I'll let him do his thing and unless he screws up I won't really have to work this semester! Should be relaxing, tons more time. Although, as much time as it takes, I think I am going to miss being there when my subordinate needed me. Its nice to be able to go to bed at night knowing that in some small way, simple though it may be, you made a difference in someone's life for the better.
Classes started on a Thursday (not Saturday like I had thought, although we did still have class) and we had a one-day weekend-not nearly enough. My course load isn't bad this semester (as in the classes are relatively easy even though there are a lot of them) but my instructors...there are some real winners. Others are legitimately good though. My philosophy teacher for example is exactly what I imagine taking a class from my cousin Kyle would be like-too bad he has to be teaching such a worthless class. My schedule is as follows:
DAY 1:
Intro to Computer Science
Spanish II
Philosophy
Economics
DAY 2:
Physics II
Probability and Statistics
Spanish II (both days)
SCUBA (only the second half of the semester)
LABS:
Computer Science
Economics
Physics
Total, including SCUBA for half a semester, 20.5 credits (our labs don't actually count for credit hours, they are just a part of the class).
On the church side of things, it was really good to come back and see all my friends again. Yes, I am aware that I just said it was good to come back, and I meant it. I always miss home and dread coming back, but these guys have become as much my family as those at home, in a way. Being a branch missionary is great. We finally got around to teaching the first new-member discussion to our recent convert and we have another baptism on Saturday. Sadly, I will no longer be in/teaching the gospel essentials class. Though I struggled with it, it was good for me and I will miss seeing the investigators in that setting every week. Given what I am moving to instead; however, its a change I'm glad to make- mission prep is going to be taught during that time! We are all beginning the process of leaving the academy to serve the Lord and I can't wait! Especially after teaching the discussion yesterday.
That's about it. Exiting boredom, the story of my life.
Winter Leave (more commonly known to other schools as winter/Christmas break) was amazing. I had to spend the night in the airport, but managed to get out of NYC only one day behind schedule-much better than most of the people who were waiting there with me. I spent two days sleeping. Literally. At the end of the second day looked down and realized that the only time I had been out of my pajamas was to shower. The next day was Christmas! It was a great day and I was given tons of cool stuff to help traveling/spending nights in airports much more tolerable. That weekend I started hanging out with friends and spent pretty much the rest of my time at home hanging out/catching up with old buddies from what seems forever ago.
Unfortunately, it came to an end and I returned to the point. We had three days of reorgy week to get moved in, buy books, find classes and generally re-acclimatize to life here. My roommates and I stayed together in the same room so moving was easy, I just pulled my stuff out of the closet but it was still a long three days.
I have a new plebe. This time, HE doesn't fit into any of the categories of my previous plebe. The emphasis for what I am supposed to teach this semester is Buckner-prep and other military type stuff- which my new plebe openly admits is his weak point making life easier for me when trying to come up with things to talk about. My leadership style is to take people on an individual basis as much as possible rather than a one size fits all attitude so I asked him what he wants from me and his answer was a hands-off leader. Great! I'll let him do his thing and unless he screws up I won't really have to work this semester! Should be relaxing, tons more time. Although, as much time as it takes, I think I am going to miss being there when my subordinate needed me. Its nice to be able to go to bed at night knowing that in some small way, simple though it may be, you made a difference in someone's life for the better.
Classes started on a Thursday (not Saturday like I had thought, although we did still have class) and we had a one-day weekend-not nearly enough. My course load isn't bad this semester (as in the classes are relatively easy even though there are a lot of them) but my instructors...there are some real winners. Others are legitimately good though. My philosophy teacher for example is exactly what I imagine taking a class from my cousin Kyle would be like-too bad he has to be teaching such a worthless class. My schedule is as follows:
DAY 1:
Intro to Computer Science
Spanish II
Philosophy
Economics
DAY 2:
Physics II
Probability and Statistics
Spanish II (both days)
SCUBA (only the second half of the semester)
LABS:
Computer Science
Economics
Physics
Total, including SCUBA for half a semester, 20.5 credits (our labs don't actually count for credit hours, they are just a part of the class).
On the church side of things, it was really good to come back and see all my friends again. Yes, I am aware that I just said it was good to come back, and I meant it. I always miss home and dread coming back, but these guys have become as much my family as those at home, in a way. Being a branch missionary is great. We finally got around to teaching the first new-member discussion to our recent convert and we have another baptism on Saturday. Sadly, I will no longer be in/teaching the gospel essentials class. Though I struggled with it, it was good for me and I will miss seeing the investigators in that setting every week. Given what I am moving to instead; however, its a change I'm glad to make- mission prep is going to be taught during that time! We are all beginning the process of leaving the academy to serve the Lord and I can't wait! Especially after teaching the discussion yesterday.
That's about it. Exiting boredom, the story of my life.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
I grew up
Lots of people are talking about the new decade and all that has happened in the old decade. After reading my sister's blog I started thinking "Certainly not that much has happened to me in the past decade. I mean, the past couple of years, yeah, but other than that?" So I decided to actually figure out what had happened.
The year 2000 started with the last half of fourth grade. Honestly, I really don't even remember that much. It was an election year though, the first election I ever followed (Bush vs. Gore). Other than that, there's not much I even remember. The next several years are like that. 9/11 was significant, but not specifically to me. The Olympics in SLC. Through these years I was a quiet, shy little boy. I remember Sheena bringing her friends to the house and thinking how huge they were and that there's no way I would ever be big like that. At some point though I did become big(ish, I still don't really feel like a "big person").
In 8th grade (2003-04) I started going to Provo once a week for Utah Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra (UVYSO). My first tour with them was the '04 Los Angeles tour. I climbed on the bus in Delta and only knew one person. She had a seat at the front of the bus, I got stuck in the back. Kinda hard for a shy kid, but someone reached out to me and really brought me out of my shell. For the next few years I would go talk to anyone, I didn't care. Life was good. Lauren (the one who included me) and I were good friends for years.
The next major event was August '05. Justine had a tragic accident which took her life. This is when I learned that real men do cry from time to time, over certain things. I had experienced death before, but it was always an elderly person who had lived a full life. This time it was a close personal friend, much different. About a month later, another friend, Danielle, also had a fatal accident. I wasn't as close with her, but about a week before she died Danielle came up to me and reminded me of a promise I had made her. I never got to fulfill that promise, and it has hurt me ever since. Two and a half months later, another friend from UVYSO missed practice. The next week when I asked her where she had been I learned that she had gone anorexic- hadn't eaten anything for a month- and tried to and almost succeeded in killing herself by overdosing on her sister's medication. This was a dark time in my life and it took me until just this past summer to be truly happy again. I receded back into my shell, didn't want to have anything to do with anyone and built up walls to keep people out. My logic was that if I never got close to anyone, I would never be hurt like that again. That is not true, and even if it was I have since learned that even if you aren't hurt, you will still not be happy unless you lead a happy life. Luckily, I had a friend who was willing to take the time to break through the walls I had built up. Better yet, rather than trying to force me to instantly be more social, she showed me the way to take the walls down for myself. It was a long process, and is sometimes still a struggle, but its worth. I owe much of who I am to that friend and will be forever grateful.
But it wasn't all bad. Somewhere along the way I got a postcard from USMA asking me to go to a "briefing" at the University of Utah. It sounded interesting so I made my parents drive me up and attend. My eyes were opened to a whole new opportunity that I had never before considered. In the spring of '07 I started my application. By February (I believe) of the following year the application was finished and it became a waiting game. I was offered a full tuition ROTC scholarship to BYU, as well as a full tuition academic scholarship which combined would have meant almost free school there as well. Then Sen. Hatch's office called me one day, catching me in between classes, and read me an email they had received stating that I was to be extended an appointment to the academy.
So much has changed in the past two years that I am not even going to attempt to talk about it all. Cadet Basic Training was miserable but looking back I actually miss those days. Plebe year, Buckner, AMT, so much growth. It is hard to believe that now I am a "big person". I have finished high school and a year and a half of college. My friends are all gone on missions and I will soon be starting my papers to join them. The past decade may not have had that many events that impacted me specifically but they were huge; their impact eternal. 10 years is a long time, and somewhere along the way it happened: I grew up.
The year 2000 started with the last half of fourth grade. Honestly, I really don't even remember that much. It was an election year though, the first election I ever followed (Bush vs. Gore). Other than that, there's not much I even remember. The next several years are like that. 9/11 was significant, but not specifically to me. The Olympics in SLC. Through these years I was a quiet, shy little boy. I remember Sheena bringing her friends to the house and thinking how huge they were and that there's no way I would ever be big like that. At some point though I did become big(ish, I still don't really feel like a "big person").
In 8th grade (2003-04) I started going to Provo once a week for Utah Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra (UVYSO). My first tour with them was the '04 Los Angeles tour. I climbed on the bus in Delta and only knew one person. She had a seat at the front of the bus, I got stuck in the back. Kinda hard for a shy kid, but someone reached out to me and really brought me out of my shell. For the next few years I would go talk to anyone, I didn't care. Life was good. Lauren (the one who included me) and I were good friends for years.
The next major event was August '05. Justine had a tragic accident which took her life. This is when I learned that real men do cry from time to time, over certain things. I had experienced death before, but it was always an elderly person who had lived a full life. This time it was a close personal friend, much different. About a month later, another friend, Danielle, also had a fatal accident. I wasn't as close with her, but about a week before she died Danielle came up to me and reminded me of a promise I had made her. I never got to fulfill that promise, and it has hurt me ever since. Two and a half months later, another friend from UVYSO missed practice. The next week when I asked her where she had been I learned that she had gone anorexic- hadn't eaten anything for a month- and tried to and almost succeeded in killing herself by overdosing on her sister's medication. This was a dark time in my life and it took me until just this past summer to be truly happy again. I receded back into my shell, didn't want to have anything to do with anyone and built up walls to keep people out. My logic was that if I never got close to anyone, I would never be hurt like that again. That is not true, and even if it was I have since learned that even if you aren't hurt, you will still not be happy unless you lead a happy life. Luckily, I had a friend who was willing to take the time to break through the walls I had built up. Better yet, rather than trying to force me to instantly be more social, she showed me the way to take the walls down for myself. It was a long process, and is sometimes still a struggle, but its worth. I owe much of who I am to that friend and will be forever grateful.
But it wasn't all bad. Somewhere along the way I got a postcard from USMA asking me to go to a "briefing" at the University of Utah. It sounded interesting so I made my parents drive me up and attend. My eyes were opened to a whole new opportunity that I had never before considered. In the spring of '07 I started my application. By February (I believe) of the following year the application was finished and it became a waiting game. I was offered a full tuition ROTC scholarship to BYU, as well as a full tuition academic scholarship which combined would have meant almost free school there as well. Then Sen. Hatch's office called me one day, catching me in between classes, and read me an email they had received stating that I was to be extended an appointment to the academy.
So much has changed in the past two years that I am not even going to attempt to talk about it all. Cadet Basic Training was miserable but looking back I actually miss those days. Plebe year, Buckner, AMT, so much growth. It is hard to believe that now I am a "big person". I have finished high school and a year and a half of college. My friends are all gone on missions and I will soon be starting my papers to join them. The past decade may not have had that many events that impacted me specifically but they were huge; their impact eternal. 10 years is a long time, and somewhere along the way it happened: I grew up.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Appeasement
Sheena was pestering me for pictures of myself in uniform. I still dodge the camera most of the time so there aren't many out there, but here are the ones I do have:
This is my beast squad in front of a Blackhawk. I'm the one in the bottom left that looks like they have a red square on their chest.
Beast squad again, lined up on the wall waiting to go down to breakfast formation. You should be able to pick me out of this photo.
My buckner squad. By now you should be noticing a trend- I'm only in group photos...
The guy in greens was the ROTC guy in our squad. He was pretty cool, but made me realize how much better West Point is than ROTC as far as hands on training goes.
Buckner- My beast roommate Edwin Cruz and I found each other outside the big dance the last night there.
Christmas dinner this year, Skomp and I in the mess hall.
Christmas dinner night out on the stoops. Everyone smokes cigars. I could only handle being out there just long enough to get this pic. B Webb is on the left and Skomp is in the middle (my roommates).
No saber, I don't get that until firstie (senior) year. Even then, there probably won't be any pictures of me with it, sorry sis.
This is my beast squad in front of a Blackhawk. I'm the one in the bottom left that looks like they have a red square on their chest.
Beast squad again, lined up on the wall waiting to go down to breakfast formation. You should be able to pick me out of this photo.
My buckner squad. By now you should be noticing a trend- I'm only in group photos...The guy in greens was the ROTC guy in our squad. He was pretty cool, but made me realize how much better West Point is than ROTC as far as hands on training goes.
Buckner- My beast roommate Edwin Cruz and I found each other outside the big dance the last night there.
Christmas dinner this year, Skomp and I in the mess hall.
Christmas dinner night out on the stoops. Everyone smokes cigars. I could only handle being out there just long enough to get this pic. B Webb is on the left and Skomp is in the middle (my roommates). No saber, I don't get that until firstie (senior) year. Even then, there probably won't be any pictures of me with it, sorry sis.
Friday, December 4, 2009
sleeping cadets
Many of you, I am sure, have heard about/seen the sleeping cadets (here too) from President Obama's Afghan-plan speech, and it makes me mad (I know, big surprise). Was it unprofessional for them to be sleeping? Yes, just about as unprofessional as the news media searching the crowd for those cadets but still nowhere near as unprofessional as the treatment we received during the process of hosting the event.
Lets talk about sleep for a little bit. Cadets are more tired than the average American, and the average college student. You may think I'm biased (and I probably am) but science is on my side. The sleep patterns of cadets has been a topic of sleep research for years and it has been shown time and again that cadets fall way short of normal, let alone healthy sleep. One interesting fact regarding this is the average time it takes people to reach REM sleep, the stage of sleep where dreaming occurs. The average American takes 45 minutes to an hour to reach this point. The average college student? 20-30 minutes. The average West Point cadet? 6-15 minutes. The high end of our average is a third of the low end of the rest of America's! So yes, we tend to sleep, and sometimes we sleep when we're not supposed to.
That being said, I would still argue that given any population the size of the one in Ike Hall for the president's speech, under the same circumstances would have had the same results. The most obvious evidence for this is the fact that Hillary Clinton was also struggling to stay awake when the camera panned to her. Aside from that fact though, there is still the treatment of cadets the day of the speech.
We had a full day, normal with the exception of the speech. Unfortunately, that means that rather than going back to our rooms after being in class from 7:30 in the morning until 4:00 in the afternoon, we were in Ike Hall immediately following classes. This would not be a big deal if we were like navy (see funny picture below) but we are not. They brought a few thousand cadets into a warm, comfortable theater, wearing our dress gray uniform (easy to sleep in because the collar prevents the head-bob that helps so many people stay awake), told them they can't move, can't sleep and, oh yeah, you can't have much with you so there is very little to do! If you slept, you were woken up in a not-so-nice, very military manner. Then we all sat there for 4 HOURS before the president even showed up. When he got here and started his speech, the lights went off, and we listened to our boss talk in a very subdued, monotone voice for an extended period of time. How many of you could stay awake through a meeting like that? Let alone how long we had been sitting there and that it was at the end of a normal work day for the most tired population in the United States.
This is classic example of the fishbowl principle (cadet life is like living in a fishbowl- lots of people like to tap on the glass and all you can do is smile and put up with them; similar to the magnifying glass principle), people (especially the media) judging those in the public spotlight without bothering to learn the facts about a situation and the media's hatred for USMA. As if this wasn't enough, they took and posted pictures with captions designed to make us all seem like blood-thirsty savages who want nothing more than to kill
For the record, Kill Bin Laden is historical account of Delta Force operatives in the beginning of the Afghan war and On Killing is about the psychological and mental cost of having to kill another human being--both are highly applicable to our lives and the president's speech and neither are a sign that we are blood-thirsty.
Lets talk about sleep for a little bit. Cadets are more tired than the average American, and the average college student. You may think I'm biased (and I probably am) but science is on my side. The sleep patterns of cadets has been a topic of sleep research for years and it has been shown time and again that cadets fall way short of normal, let alone healthy sleep. One interesting fact regarding this is the average time it takes people to reach REM sleep, the stage of sleep where dreaming occurs. The average American takes 45 minutes to an hour to reach this point. The average college student? 20-30 minutes. The average West Point cadet? 6-15 minutes. The high end of our average is a third of the low end of the rest of America's! So yes, we tend to sleep, and sometimes we sleep when we're not supposed to.
That being said, I would still argue that given any population the size of the one in Ike Hall for the president's speech, under the same circumstances would have had the same results. The most obvious evidence for this is the fact that Hillary Clinton was also struggling to stay awake when the camera panned to her. Aside from that fact though, there is still the treatment of cadets the day of the speech.
We had a full day, normal with the exception of the speech. Unfortunately, that means that rather than going back to our rooms after being in class from 7:30 in the morning until 4:00 in the afternoon, we were in Ike Hall immediately following classes. This would not be a big deal if we were like navy (see funny picture below) but we are not. They brought a few thousand cadets into a warm, comfortable theater, wearing our dress gray uniform (easy to sleep in because the collar prevents the head-bob that helps so many people stay awake), told them they can't move, can't sleep and, oh yeah, you can't have much with you so there is very little to do! If you slept, you were woken up in a not-so-nice, very military manner. Then we all sat there for 4 HOURS before the president even showed up. When he got here and started his speech, the lights went off, and we listened to our boss talk in a very subdued, monotone voice for an extended period of time. How many of you could stay awake through a meeting like that? Let alone how long we had been sitting there and that it was at the end of a normal work day for the most tired population in the United States.
This is classic example of the fishbowl principle (cadet life is like living in a fishbowl- lots of people like to tap on the glass and all you can do is smile and put up with them; similar to the magnifying glass principle), people (especially the media) judging those in the public spotlight without bothering to learn the facts about a situation and the media's hatred for USMA. As if this wasn't enough, they took and posted pictures with captions designed to make us all seem like blood-thirsty savages who want nothing more than to kill
For the record, Kill Bin Laden is historical account of Delta Force operatives in the beginning of the Afghan war and On Killing is about the psychological and mental cost of having to kill another human being--both are highly applicable to our lives and the president's speech and neither are a sign that we are blood-thirsty.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)