Weekly Update?

So, I am doin pretty good with this lately. Currently I am covering for my buddy at the CCQ. The CCQ stands for cadet in charge of quarters. Basically all you do is sit at a desk in the hallway of your company are and send a few emails out to everyone if the chain of command needs you to. It is very boring, very very boring.
This weekend has been a long one, for multiple reasons. I had paintball Friday after classes till the evening and nearly all day Saturday. Of course, I have a lot of fun with paintball so its well worth the tiredness. The second reason this weekend is long is due to Halo:Reach. I just got the game a few days ago and because of it I am sleeping about 10% of what I should be. Thankfully, I have very little homework to do today and can therefore nap or go to bed early once I'm done on the CCQ.
I think my main focus on this post was to be a summary of all the stuff I never wrote about over the summer. I had a very enjoyable summer this year. Because I go to West Point I have mandatory and optional training which I do in the summers. This past summer i went to Airborne School at Ft. Benning, GA and to Camp Buckner, which is right hear at West Point.
All the time outside of training (like 4 weeks total) I spent at home. All the time there consisted of the usual late nights, constantly with friends, lunch and whatnot with the family. There was one portion of my summer where we went to my grandfather's farm for a few days.
Airborne school was an amazing experience. Three of my buddies from G2 were there with me which was awesome. Airborne school consists of three weeks of training; ground week, tower week, jump week. The training itself was very monotonous and including a lot of idling. The thing that was great though was the open weekends and of course jumping out of a perfectly good airplane! One of my buddies lived near Ft. Benning, so we went and chilled at his place on the weekends. We also went to Birmingham, AL for a day cuz my other friend who was at Airborne with me lived there. After we got through all of the bullshit and training and waiting we got to jump. The first jump was fairly intimidating. I am not gonna lie, I was scared. Waiting in the plane was intense, especially when they opened up the doors on each side of the plane. A quick side note, I jumped from both a C130 and C17 and jumped with a T-11 and T-10D parachute. Once the green light in the plane comes on and the Jumpmasters signal you to go, you turn into an automaton. You are leaving the plane no matter what and its just like the training we did. Once I actually jumped, the prop blast and wind hit my face, and I felt my chute opening, all fear left. It was very strange, that is the experience I had. I was expecting some freefalling and just something crazy. What I experienced was the most peaceful 45 seconds of my life. Literally all you notice is the ground beneath you and the light rustling of you parachute. The only intense part of the jump is the landing and actually getting out of the plane. My buddies and I all completed our 5 jumps without injury and graduated. Sadly we did not get to do a night jump due to a storm that rolled through one afternoon, which postponed one of the other jumps.
Camp Buckner was the other bit of training I had this summer. Buckner (aka. Bucknam, Bucknamistan, Buckraqistan) is a 4 week period of field training done at West Point. This was mandatory for all of us. We covered a lot of training which spanned all of the Combat Arms branches of the Army. I took huge advantage of Buckner. It was a chance for me to meet all new people in my class that I had never talked to or even seen before. I made quite a few good friends this summer. I also had a lot of fun. Many people are very negative and bitter because they don't want to be there. Like I said, I took advantage of Buckner, and was the optimist and morale booster in my platoon. I don't really feel like going into to detail about Buckner because there is a lot and not all of it is really pivotal to the nature of this blog.
The last thing I am going to talk about is my grandfather's farm. After Buckner, my family and I went up to the farm. The reason we were going there was somewhat saddening. It was to be our official visit. My grandparents decided to sell the farm, which I completely respect. Its hard to run a farm and you gotta live your life some time. The few days we had at the farm were amazing. The sights, the smells, the memories, the list goes on. I drove around the farm with the ATV, I took pictures, I did a lot of shooting, I went fishing, I enjoyed a beer with my grandfather and even had a cigar one night, just taking everything in. The farm has always and stills does (despite the fact it has sold now) mean a lot to me. A lot the person I am today comes from things I learned and did there. I have many memories from there too. I had been going there since I was born. I took everything in that I could and made my last days there the best ever. A cherished object of my life it will always remain.
Well, my Q shift is almost done, my buddy just got back. I actually covered everything that I wanted to, I think......... Besides, it's best not to make these things drag on forever. As always updates will be hopefully continue weekly. Peace out.

A little later than I expected.....

So, instead of writing on the blog on Sunday, I slept till 1 and watched 2 movies...........Productive right? Sundays here are my main R&R days, despite usually having homework those nights. Saturdays consist of football games, paintball practice, or family visits. This past weekend I had the opportunity to enjoy the football game with my dad and youngest sister. I had a great time seeing them, and relaxing at Col. Johnson's house when we weren't at the game. I believe my sister had a good time, and I know for sure, as always, my dad just loves coming back to this pleasant Hell on Earth (I say pleasant because sometimes it ain't so bad).
This week is fairly uneventful, classes and more classes with the occasional quiz in a class or two. I had my first company wrestling match of the year yesterday. I wrestled a kid I previously lost to in a scrimmage but managed to pull out a win. The cadet ref was quite sub par and failed to call the pin which I held for 1:30 of the 2 minutes available in the second period. Despite this setback, I score a few more points in the third and won 13-7. I'm proud of that score, and it was quite the match. I was exhausted.........
While speaking of exhaustion, I also did Sandhurst tryouts (for fun) on Monday. The ordeal led me to more cramps than I have ever endured before. It was a very intense workout/gauntlet however I completed it. I'm still sore today from it though.
Another note, I declared my major last Friday. My final decision was to Double Major in Arabic and German. I already have about 5 years experience in German, including 2 month long trips to Germany. I enjoy the language and the culture immensely. I am currently enrolled in Arabic and find the joy, passion, and curiosity as I did when studying German in high school. I look forward to experiencing a new culture and learning another language as well. I hope that in the next year I will be able to secure a semester abroad in either Morocco or Egypt. One semester away from West Point, one semester experiencing a completely different world- sounds pretty awesome to me.
Well, this is all I have for right now. I will eventually do a huge update which will cover summer events that have gone without mention. Ma'salaama (goodbye in Arabic).

Poems (Yes poems I wrote) from last schoolyear

Okay, I figured I would share these on my blog as they are all inspired by West Point. I have never been a poetry fan, let alone a writing fan, yet I randomly became inspired a few times to write. I hope you enjoy my poems..........

Friends

My friends are very dear to me.

Without them I couldn’t survive living here.

I hope they are loyal as I am to them.

To lose touch with just one is too much to bear,

Tears would fall as they never have.

My mind like mush that I get from the Mess,

I’d do anything to remain as I am.

I want to be a good man, not some programmed machine,

God Damn the elitists who put me down!

I’ll be a better man, in both profession and society,

May I have great comrades both old and new,

My friends are very dear to me.

Gray

Gray is the only color that I see.

It engulfs me like a stormy sea.

Everyday seems the same,

It goes on and on like an endless game.

Freedom and pleasure are seldom found.

They are luring music of a faint sound.

Gray consumes me, but I guess its fine.

In a few years I’ll be official in the Long Gray Line.

Colors

The colors here sometimes lie,

Toward summertime they make us smile,

They seem to express joy and freedom,

But Thayer reels at such foolish notions.

Projects, papers, tests and all

Lock us within gray barracks walls.

Windows open, warm breeze and sun,

Distract us from computer screens.

We stop working, Thayer leaves our minds,

As we ponder over past summers fun.

Abrubtly CGR ruins our dreams,

Mando dinner in thirty minutes.

Hours of drudgery follow in the evening,

All the while nature taunts us.

The colors here sometimes lie.

Edgar Allen Poe

I wonder what they thought of Poe.

Such a strange man for so rigid a place.

I doubt he’d make that good of a Joe,

His independence and ideas beam from his face.

Is it true he stood attention bare assed?

I wonder what they thought of Poe.

Was he pompous or depressed, that’s what I’d ask.

His rank in the Corps must have been so low.

A cadet, an animal, a rebel at heart?

I wonder what they thought of Poe.

Where in the world did his commanders start?

His uniform dirty and his brass lacked glow.

I’d love to see him on the Plain,

His stride in parades so very strange.

His behavior must have been quite the comedic show,

I wonder what they thought of Poe.

After a long hiatus and many events.........

Everybody, I am still alive. I am about a month into my second year as a cadet at West Point. So far things are going well. My Physics class sucks, as expected, however I am not failing so all is good. I am currently having a lot of fun learning Arabic as well. I have many things to write about and a few things I wrote last school year to post on here. This weekend I am going to sit down and write as much as I can in order to fill in the void found within my blog. As of now I am enjoying my afternoon in my room and have company athletics in about an hour. I will go for now, so "ma' salaama."