cadet blogs

The Camaraderie

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

Whoa! Midterms here already? I can’t even believe it! These first eight weeks have gone by way faster than Swab Summer did, that’s for sure! Don’t kid yourselves, applicants, if you think you did well in high school and you’ll be able to coast right through here (no pun intended), think again. These classes are tough. Add the athletics and military obligations and you’ve got one heck of a schedule! Another huge thing I’ve noticed here is everyone is really helpful and really friendly. If you need help with something, someone is going to help you. Study sessions and CAAP sessions are definitely helping me out. My favorite classes are definitely History with Dr. Zuczek and Nautical Science with BMC Shafer. History is my favorite subject (oh, hello there Government major!) and Dr. Zuczek brings an interesting perspective to it. We had some pretty intense debates about Jackson and Clay, and it’s awesome because EVERYONE gets involved and gets intense. Navigation is just a great class because it’s what I’ll be doing in just four years! Really enjoying that class, as well as all of the classes in general.

I joined a whole bunch of clubs since coming here, including Mock Trial, Model UN, Glee Club, and I even made the fall play! That’s going to be lots of fun! Lacrosse is awesome, we just played our first game against UCONN last Sunday, and we almost won! I got an assist and played two quarters, so I’m happy about that. Extracurriculars definitely take your mind off the madness of fourth class year, and can even get you wearing civvies and leaving the Academy! Glee Club is going to NYC next week, I’m pretty excited!

The military stuff is pretty chill, believe it or not. Duty gives you time to do homework with no distractions. Clocks are clocks, and the greeting is so much better than the mass greeting of Swab Summer. Which brings me to Swab Summer. Eight weeks later, looking back at it, it is easily the best experience of my life. I made thirty great friends who are now my company-mates, we went through many difficult days and came out strong. That’s what I like best about this place – the camaraderie.

One half-semester down, 15 to go until I’m an Ensign! Hopefully, it won’t go TOO fast!

More about Samuel.

Posted by Leann Strickland at 2/16/2012 4:02 PM