Sorry dudes for being a bit MIA there for a week or so. It's been... an emotional few weeks. :/ Lots to cover, so sit back, and prepare for a crazy ride.
1st = FTP Retreat. Like I said in the last post, I SURVIVED! It was tough, but not as tough as I thought it was gonna be. :) It really opened my eyes to how much I really do need to learn and prepare for. Through all the yelling, all the stressful moments, I do feel more comfortable now and do feel that I can be a better leader when FT does come. As of the date to when I ship off, that's coming up in a bit.... So overall, it was worth it and I would totally recommend to all the other cadets when it comes to their time to have to face FT. We went to a Navy Base in Chicago and I was roomed with a cadet from another detachment and she was really nice. We both helped each other out with getting the room set up correctly and up to standards (yeah know, folding, hospital corners, that fun stuff) then we had to change out of uniform into another uniform in record blowing time while keeping the room still up to standards, and fall out in the hallway at attention. We did that at least 20times throughout the course of the day, just constantly changing uniforms haha. Then we might do PT, marching, ORI (Open Rank Inspection) and the most fun, STBYI (Standby Inspection!) aka get your room torn to shreds after you've spent forever getting it together. Nothing is ever perfect to them, ah well :P Eating was a blast too. Don't grab too much, or else you're gonna want to vomit trying to shove all that food in your mouth in a matter of 10minutes. So yeah, that was great. I was appointed Flight Leader, yeah, talk about nerve racking. The outlook of your flight depends upon the Flight Leader's actions. If I don't know a command or screw up, it's not just on me, but my ENTIRE flight, so yeah it's stressful, but... I kinda liked it hehe. Yes, I messed up and broke my bearing a few times, but it was a learning experience and now I know I can be that ready-for-anything Flight leader :DD So yeah, that was FTP! good times hehe
2nd = Sucker Punch the movie was AWESOME!!!! everyone needs to see it. I am determined to either dress up as Baby Doll or Sweet Pea, haven't figured it out yet, for future Comic Cons (yep, my nerdiness shows :P ) The music, storyline, action, cinematography, acting, EVERYTHING was just amazing. My favorite movie of all time fo sho :)
3rd = Okay, so more into last week which was a sucker punch to the heart pretty much. Yeah, a little more mellow now so please, bear with me. A weekend ago, 4 Angola High Schoolers were killed in a car accident. They were driving up from Florida, it was their spring break, and the weather played a key factor in the whole situation and took these 4 young men's life. The whole community shook like an level 10 earthquake. I didn't even know the 4 men and it affected me. Numerious church services were given throughout the week. Trine provided the ARC for the funeral viewing. The radio, posters, colletion jars, I mean everywhere you looked, those 4 men's names were ringing in your head. There was no way you couldn't be apart of the emotional time. Through all the hurt through, Trine University did something great and helped contribute to a scholarship made by the four families called Fourever Friends Memorial Scholarship by matching the amount of money the football team raised for the scholarship. In sorrow we give hope. God rest those four souls and many prays to the family and the entire community to find that hint of sunshine in their life.
Alexx Bauer, Matthew Roe, Evan Weaver and Riley Zimmer <3
4th = Well, this is, yet again, another sucker punch to the heart, and it happened only a day or so after I heard about the 4 teens killed, so again, sorry if I make this last one short, since it's still tough for me even a week or so later to talk about. So last week at Air Force ROTC we got word that our Captains have the list of what cadets got a slot into FT or not. In all the years of AFROTC at Notre Dame, they have never once not have a cadet get a slot, until this year... Gosh, it's still hard to press the letters on the keyboard down to just write down what happened. Okay, well I'm going to jump right into it. I got a slot. Yes, I got a slot. Notice I didn't say "we" ..... it was only I, from Trine University, that got a slot, not my fellow Trine cadets. Just me. The Captains had originally split us in separate groups (ones who got a slot, and ones who didn't, though at the time we didn't know what the grouping meant, so it shocked everyone) I just remember starting to smile when I got word I got a slot, but then I looked around me in the room and I didn't see anymore Trine. Even some of my other fellow AS200s that had become my friends through these last 2 years weren't there. Ugh, I just wanted to vomit and wake up from this nightmare. I never wanted this, I never wanted to go through this alone. I joined the Air Force ROTC program, yes to be in the Air Force, but to also create a bond with other dreamers that are wrapped in the Red, White, and Blue. Out of the original 4, the first ever AFROTC cadets from Trine, I'm the only one left..... I know, I worked hard, I earned it, but they did too!! I'm angry, sad, confused, sick, and maybe even a bit hopeless. I mean, the scholarships they were given are gone now since, if you don't a slot for Field Training, you're not in the program anymore, kicked out pretty much. I mean, you could take the chance and go another year, but it's all the same really, nothing on your record is gonna say that you're trying again. 10 people didn't get slots. 10!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. 10 of my friends didn't make it. The cadets from Trine are probably not even gonna come back to Trine next semester because they're short of $ now since their Air Force scholarship got taken away. So why such a blow this year compared to the past years? The military is taking heavy budget cuts, and they seriously cut out like 1,000 slots from FT this summer. So that's 1,000 people that couldn't go. It's horrible it had to come to this and everyone at the detachment felt the hurt and still do. I don't know if I'll ever recover. I just know I gotta lead now and make the ones that didn't get a slot proud. It's all for you guys now.
Shipping off Date: May 19th.
Peace
~Annie
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