SHOCK and AWE

Saturday was one of the hardest, most intense days of my life and I loved it.  We were excited about getting to sleep in till 0630 since the upperclass told us we had the morning off.  Then at 0523 our peaceful dreams were ripped apart by yelling and boots slamming into our doors.  Disoriented and confused we stumbled out in the hallway and stood at attention outside our doors as the upperclass berated us.  Then they told us to change into our blues and fall back outside.  We changed in a hurry, accompanied by much yelling, then as we were almost ready, they told us to change into our BDUs.  At this point I didn't know what the heck was going on, but I was almost enjoying myself.  After forming up we were marched downstairs and across the campus when a voice came over the loudspeaker with a Lightning Watch and we had to go inside.  They harassed us there for a while, then marched us back to the dorms.  They told us that we had left our rooms far too messy and that we had 30 minutes to get them in inspection order.  This seemed like plenty of time to me so I wasn't worried, until I saw my room.  It looked like a tornado had blown through as bedsheets were in the shower.  Shoes were hanging everywhere and my carefully folded clothes were scattered.  My roommate and I took a deep breath and went to work.  Then a real tornado warning came and we had to go hide in the closets downstairs.  Againsta all odds, and wishes of many OTs, the campus survived untouched and we ran upstairs to continue our attempt to salvage our rooms.  After the deadline, they called us out in the hall and performed a classified initiation ceremony, gave us coins and made us official members of the Gold Hawk squadron.  We also earned our pennant meaning we can march by ourselves. 

Three weeks ago, I would have not been impressed by this stuff or understood it at all.  But now, it really means a lot.  I feel like I have gotten into the routine of this life.  It's hard, but I am entering into a selective and honored brotherhood, it should be hard.  I can embrace that.