cadet blogs

That Pit in Your Stomach

(The Cadet Experience, Class of 2015) Permanent link All Posts

In the past month I have experienced the best feeling and the worst feeling. One was leaving the Academy for break and the other was coming back to the Academy from break. I will let you decide which was which. But really though, Winter Leave was a lot of fun and was well deserved after finals and an exhausting first semester, but I was ready to come back. Finals are fairly tough, as they should be, and you can either let them ruin you or let them make you. Finals week is really relaxed and that is a nice change. After finals, I rushed out of here to catch a 0600 plane the day after my last exam and coming home for the first home was great! It was wonderful to walk around without my uniform on, whenever my mom let me out of the house without it on which wasn’t often. But it was good to see friends and family and to just relax, and sleep in!

Once I was home for a while, it was like I never left. Friends came home from colleges, and other friends never left and are working at the Wal-Mart or Wendy's. My friends and family made me realize why I go to the Academy. That look of pride from your family or your grandpa tearing up every time he sees you in uniform is what brought me back here. My friends’ stories about their “difficult days,” which sounds like a vacation from Academy life, is what brought me back because I know how much better prepared for life I will be by being here. Knowing that life doesn’t change at home means that I wouldn’t change being there either. Growing up means changing and becoming a better person and that is what the Academy does and is what I could get nowhere else. Coming back to the Academy, you see the tip of Hamilton Hall and the flashing light of the Chapel and you get that pit in your stomach and I probably will always get that feeling whenever I see this place. But even with that feeling, I feel refreshed and ready to take on the Academy’s challenges no matter how much I would rather be watching the new 3D T.V. at home that we got for Christmas.

More about Matt.

Posted by Leann Strickland at 2/16/2012 3:55 PM