guest writer!!

I've finally fooled someone else into doing my work for me! My friend Susan has graciously offered her thoughts for your consideration this week...as we prepare to graduate on Saturday!! I can't help but relate to a lot of what Susan says, all I told her was that the theme was "what are you thinking about as you prepare to graduate?" I think she done good...

4 DAYS!!! (holy crap)

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Jumbled thoughts from a jumbled cadet

As my final week at West Point is beginning, the more apprehensive I feel myself becoming. I want to leave this place so badly that I cannot help but think that something is going to prevent me from doing so. I’m not one to get in trouble; I’ve never walked an hour. Still, there is that feeling that as I start to hope and get excited about graduation that something will snatch it all away.

I’ve also started to write thank you notes to the teachers I enjoyed having. I’m not sure how the real world works. Sure, I’ve gotten brief glimpses of it from time to time, but soon I will be a part of it. Everyone says it is good to keep in contact with old instructors for letters of recommendation later on, or even just as mentors. Since I’m not sure how that works exactly, I’ve decided the first step is to say thank you. After that, I guess I’ll just send them emails every few months in attempt to forge a professional/personal relationship that transcends the classroom.

It’s funny how the end of something is the beginning of another. I’ve hated West Point with a passion for the past few years. Sometimes I’m alright with it, and sometimes I even like it a little bit. For the most part, however, I have spent a great deal of time hating it. I don’t like mountains. I don’t like when it is cold for so long. I don’t like and cannot begin to comprehend how people can fail to adhere to the simplest rules/regulations. The weather has started to turn nice again, and everything is turning green. It makes me happy beyond imagine, for it means graduation is coming. Everything looks beautiful that it tries to make you forget the wicked winter that wouldn’t seem to end. I’ll be leaving West Point ecstatic that it is over. People say that cadets start to miss West Point on an average of 16 months after graduation. I don’t plan on ever missing West Point. I may look back and remember, but I do not think I will ever want to go back to the time when I was a cadet.