"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?
Monday, January 18, 2010
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.
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