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Don’t Count Every Hour in the Day, Make Every Hour in the Day Count

(The Cadet Experience, Class of 2014) Permanent link All Posts

There are several paradoxes to cadet life. One of them is the concept of time. The days drag on, but the weeks fly by. Right now, I’m sitting here finding it hard to believe that it is already Sunday again, or the fact that the month of October went by so quickly. It’s been a little over four months since the Academy became my home, which I find incredible. So many things have happened in between R-Day and today that I feel like it’s been a year since I last saw my hometown, although I know it’s only been a quarter of that time.

Currently, I can divide my life into three different phases: pre R-Day, Swab Summer, and present day, 4/c year. Each one of these phases has had a significant, although different, impact on my personal development. The time before R-Day was about growing up and figuring out what I wanted to do. Swab Summer was about teamwork, discipline and learning to trust and rely on people who were once strangers but are now close friends, which is perhaps one of the greatest things about the Academy. 4/c year so far has been one about self-discipline and drinking water from a fire hose. We, the Class of 2014, had plenty of discipline during the summer, but that was someone administering it to us. Now it is up to us to decide what to do with our time, which is a greater challenge than I expected.

The other night I had a discussion with my guidon on how to manage all of the academic, military, and other requirements and responsibilities that we have. For those of you who don’t know what a guidion is, it is a leadership position held by a 2/c cadet in each of the eight companies. In the words of the announcer at drill ceremonies, the guidon “is a 2/c known for their snap and precision, and is responsible for training the 4/c cadets.” He gave me some great advice on how to do well at the Academy. To summarize our discussion: “study and work with classmates when possible, write things down, discipline yourself to do the work, and prioritize responsibilities. Don’t worry about the amount of tasks that you have to do; just do them.” Great advice, because at the end of the semester what will have mattered is how I used my limited time and, more importantly, knowing that I used it well.

Best,
4/c Jordan Keith

More about Jordan.

Posted by Leann Strickland at 2/15/2012 4:09 PM