cadet blogs

My Swab Summer

(Choosing the Coast Guard Academy, Class of 2015) Permanent link All Posts

It's only appropriate that my first blog entry is about Swab Summer, as that was my first experience at the Academy. They are seven weeks of hard mental and physical conditioning to get you ready for the school year and prepare you to be in the military. The most difficult part of Swab Summer for me was not the physical activity, but the drastic change from civilian life to military life. I'm pretty average when it comes to physical fitness, and there were very few things I couldn't do. Not saying it was easy, but it's like any good workout; you feel much better once you're done. As for the new military life style, my senior year of high school I was basically a lazy bum. I had two classes, got home by 10 a.m., and either slept all day or ate McDonald's, and that's not really an exaggeration; you could ask any of my high school friends. So to come here and go from being able to sleep all day, to running around from the break of dawn until 10 p.m. was a huge change. Once the first week passed I got into the basic routine so it wasn't as bad. It's really just a marathon and a test of endurance. Anyone can make it through with a little will power and determination.

More about James.

Posted by Leann Strickland at 2/16/2012 3:42 PM