OCTOBER 2009

A Boat of Thought

If you think a train of thought can get rolling, then you should try a boat of thought. Boats don’t even have breaks. It’s like trying to drive a thousand-ton ice skate. Since that kind of driving takes some skill, it’s fitting that here we get all sorts of practice. Nothing short of remarkable, I think, how much your work ethic and confidence are transformed here…after getting yelled at for seven weeks straight, nothing seems high pressure, and after squaring corners and meals and greeting everything you see for a year, nothing seems tedious. And after being a fourth class in general is done with…not much seems like too much. Even if it is too much, you just sort of tackle it.

For example, me thinking to myself, 3 years ago…
You’ve got a bit too much on your plate. There’s that drama club show coming up and you haven’t memorized all your lines yet and you’re not too sure when you’ll get the chance to because you’re on the cross country team and your last meet is still coming up in a couple of days… you know you can’t miss a practice. Plus you need every inch of cardio you can get before you take the Admissions PFE, not to mention to bring yourself to a new level for Swab Summer - if you’re lucky enough to get an appointment. Uuuuugh, now you’re getting ahead of yourself…way ahead. That’s months off! What about what’s just around the corner from now? CGA’s not the only college you’re applying to, as much as you want to get in. All those essays are do for Marist and Maritime and George Washington and…essays…essays! The paper for English is due on Friday! Another late night. Oh, no. No no no no no. How will I sleep? How will I keep my GPA up? Oh no. And I volunteered for to be an instructor at that campout next weekend! That’s awful…,my internship with the state assemblyman starts the week right after when all those readings are due. I’ve barely had time to even chip away at them! I won’t even have that time to rest no less do all this work. This is all too much…I may be doomed…

[But really, it gets better….]

Now, me on a ‘ typical yesterday afternoon,’ ….such as yesterday afternoon: Ok, rough seas ahead, let’s see…gotta meet with the e-comms director about the new pub protocols for web journals, and help hammer out a plan for coordinating the new publications edition so they can all be up and launched on the reformatted site by Holiday leave. Also my underclass needs a tutor for Calculus… we’ll have to arrange for that. Uuuugh and an international relations journal is due tomorrow…I’ll probably also have to get a new journal written up for Spanish III since I won’t have time on Friday because I need to get those mandatory IS hours in Thursday afternoon before I fill out my next CER, plus there’s the Ops spotlight I need that same night since I haven’t been to one this semester. Something, something. Oh and the planning reports for R-leave are due to an Admissions rep by tomorrow night too. I’ll need to get those in before dinner though, I’ve got a glee club practice to attend. No biggie, I’ll call up the schools tomorrow afternoon and get my list done. List…ah, yah list. I need to submit the volunteers list that my Division was supposed to gather up for the STEP program by tomorrow morning, I’ll have to check in with my 3/c to verify we’re all set. No wait, there’s another list too. That’s it, the scout outing volunteers list has to go to Senior Chief in Hotel Company so we can put in the excusal and community service credit request chit via the Com Serv division. Plus I need to get in touch with MWR ASAP to make sure they’ve got everything we need for that trip…can’t have people in the woods without sleeping bags in November. Ooo, and there’s a mandatory ODU issue at the uniform ship tomorrow morning at 0900, so I won’t have that time to work on my Introduction to Electrical and Computer Engineering homework like I had wanted….I might have to work out for less time today to make some room for that one. Also, I’ll have to let go of studying for that quiz tomorrow in American Congress so I can get my notes together for the WWII class, not to mention finish reading that case study for my Public Policy paper I’m going to be writing until 1 a.m. Ah, and I haven’t written that web journal yet... : / Ok, now I’ve got the to-do list. No problem.

And that’s genuinely a bit watered down - all I cared to remember of what’s already gotten done, really. You up to it? If not, we’ll get you there. One grain of salt at a time if we have to… we’ll get you there. They tell me even this is just child’s play compared to your Ensign tour once you graduate. Feel up to a challenge, for a change?