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The Price You'll Pay

(Choosing the Coast Guard Academy, Class of 2013) Permanent link All Posts

The Academy recently made the front page of Yahoo in the form of an article entitled “Five Colleges You Can Go to for Free.” I’m here to tell you that that is the biggest misnomer that the Academy will ever get. You pay to be at the Academy. You pay for it in over 7,000 hours of lost liberty time a year, you pay for it in inspections and in work, you pay for it in the time spent looking after your division, performing collateral duties, you pay for it in cleaning for formal room and wing and preparing for personnel inspections, you pay for it in drill and in practicing for it. You pay for the Academy in lost summers spent half a world away from home while your high school friends return to the nest and party. You pay for it in being told what to wear and when to wear it, and most importantly you pay for it with that proverbial blank check you write out to the People of the United States of America that, upon your graduation you are willing to pay any price, up to and including your life, for them. So yes, your bank account will not be any less full for your attending the Coast Guard Academy, you will not exchange money for your education and tutelage at this university, but remember that it is not free. You are paying a price, a rather large one at that, but that large price tag doesn’t mean that the Academy is not worth it. It’s quite the opposite in fact. Every pain and hardship, everything you give up, is worth it for the friends you make along the way, and for the honor of serving.

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Last Edited by Leann Strickland at 2/1/2013 3:15 PM