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Post-Thanksgiving Blues

(The Cadet Experience, Class of 2012) Permanent link All Posts

As I write this, I have to admit I’m feeling a little gloomy. Thanksgiving leave ended just last Sunday, thrusting us into what I consider the darkest part of the semester: the two and a half weeks between Thanksgiving leave and Christmas leave. It’s a time of bleak cloudy days, when the trees have given up all their leaves and the sun sets just minutes after classes end. It’s a time when end-of-semester projects start getting completed in a frantic rush and final exams loom just days away

But rather than getting depressed thinking about what lurks in the coming days, I’d rather reminisce about the good times I had at home in Maryland just last week. For the past two years, I’ve taken recruiting leave for Thanksgiving, which is an Academy Admissions program that 3/c, 2/c, and 1/c cadets with a high enough GPA can apply for. It allows for cadets to leave the Academy on the Friday prior to Thanksgiving (as opposed to the Tuesday before), under the requirement that the cadets must visit and recruit for the Academy at a certain number of high schools.

Though it may sound like a bit of work, it is a good deal because it allows for an extra four days of leave. I found visiting high schools was actually enjoyable. This year, I visited Middletown High School, the school I graduated from, and spoke with my old guidance counselor, which was a great way to both catch up and explain to her what the Academy is like. At another school near my house, I spoke with several interested students and distributed some pamphlets about the Academy.

While I actually had a pretty enjoyable time representing the Academy (despite the strange looks I got showing up at schools in the full Service Dress Bravo uniform), I must say the best part of Thanksgiving was after I was done recruiting. I had the rest of the week to catch up on all the episodes of Dexter I missed out on and see just how much whipped cream I could cram onto one slice of apple pie.

It is tough getting back into the Academy routine for a short, yet busy time, but Christmas leave is just weeks away.

More about Mark.

Posted by Leann Strickland at 2/1/2012 3:23 PM