cadet blogs

100th Day, et al.

(Academics, Athletics, Extracurricular Activities and Faith-Based Involvement, Class of 2015) Permanent link All Posts

Since I last wrote, my life here at the Academy has been a hectic blur. I’ll tell you a little bit about each thing that I’ve done since I last wrote.

January 26-29: I went with the Model UN team to the McMUN conference, hosted by McGill University in Montreal, Canada. It was a lot of fun, especially since it was my first time ever leaving the United States!! Our eight competitors represented different countries and entities on various UN committees and crisis simulations; I represented Brazil on the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC). (Model UN is designed to simulate what the real UN is like, so that high school and/or college kids can learn about foreign affairs, diplomacy, and the like.) The funny thing about that committee is that, at the real UNHRC in Geneva, countries like North Korea, Iran, Syria, Uganda, or China are represented on the committee dealing with human rights. Some would say it is rather ironic… Anyway, we discussed Internet access (especially the debate over physical access and censorship) and homosexuality (during which, most of the Muslim and African nations denied the existence of homosexuality or the need to protect homosexuals). I won an award for my efforts, which was nice. Canada was amazing, even if it was so cold! The only hard part was making up the large amounts of schoolwork I missed.

February 4: We had a Mock Trial scrimmage at Holy Cross, as we prepare for Regionals next week. I’ve been working with a new witness, so it’s been a long haul. The three-hour practices on Tuesday and Thursday nights make balancing academics, crew, and extracurricular activities hard, but I think it’ll be worth it when we do well next weekend at Yale. Go Bears, Go Mock Trial!

February 5: Tonight (more like this afternoon) was 101st Night!! It was amazingly fun, although a lot of work. At 1400, we hit the company bulkhead for two hours of running all over Chase Hall, getting ITed—just like Swab Summer again. I really enjoyed it, even though the 2/c did use it as an opportunity to remind us that we need better brace and military courtesy. Like Swab Summer, some did really well in certain areas, and others in other areas. I was really good at indoc, but not so good at pushups… Now, having completed it, we have earned the privilege to switch roles with the 2/c for 100th Day. Tomorrow, from 0600 to 2000, we will be upper-class, and our cadre will be squaring and doing clocks, and everything else we do as lowly fourth-class. I am excited to see what’s coming up…

Crew has less than a month until we go to Florida for spring break training. It’s going to be awesome. I love being around those guys and seeing how much effort everyone is putting in, so that we can have a good season. We even got some more “novices.” I promise you, when we hit the water after break, we’ll be destroying other boats!

Now that we have less than 100 days until 2012 graduates and becomes ensigns, the focus has changed from being good 4/c to developing into what will be good 3/c. We have to qualify to stand duty as JCDOs (Junior Cadet Duty Officer) and learn about driving cadet vans—fun privileges reserved for upper-class. Most importantly, we need to prepare for our summer experiences in the operational fleet and on Eagle. Eagle is sailing along the Eastern Seaboard this summer, and I think that I’ll be on the phase sailing from Maryland to Canada. Hopefully for my other summer assignment, while many of my classmates ride the “USCGC Calculus 2,” I’ll be on a white-hull cutter in Alaska. Stand by for more word on that. Keep your questions coming. I’ve gotten some great emails (Peter.M.Driscoll@uscga.edu), and I love the distractions from my busy day that who are people interested in the Academy provide.

More about Peter.

Posted by Leann Strickland at 2/17/2012 9:37 AM