Questions for current or former midshipmen

peskemom
Thu, 21 Sep 2006 10:22:31 +0000

As more and more of you start seriously considering the Naval Academy - this is something that I have only begun to distill - I’ve shared these thoughts with several mids, current and former and they concur with this analysis. Let me say that I do not mean to sound ‘negative’ at all about the wonderful opportunities/adventures/education/training/experiences that every young person who graduates from the Academy will have. I just think it is a serious decision and once you make the choice - go for it - but for sure be aware of what you’re getting into.

Here goes…

I came to the conclusion yesterday as I was thinking about the many, many up and down comments of my child’s experiences ( so far) at USNA that whatever else is going on there with her - unlike my older 4 who all ‘went off to college’ - she is not simply ‘at college’…She is in the military. I
realized that any child at a Service Academy is not “At college” like all
their other high school friends. They won’t go home at the holidays and
compare notes about ‘college life’. They are first in the military - which
so deems them the ‘privelege’ of higher education/training/travel/experiences as the military chain of command and their Commander in Chief so dictates.

Maybe many of you reading this will say: “well, no DUH!” but for me - it has
helped fix my mindset in a helpful way. Our children can’t sleep in, party
all weekend, skip a class, take a nap, wear whatever they want, sleep in
another person’s room, leave the campus at will, pull an all nighter, or have
friends come on campus and hang out in their room. They can’t study when
they want, bathe when they want, eat when they want or sleep when they want. They at this point don’t watch TV, listen to music, go see each weekend’s movie releases or shop in the malls. Are they in prison? No, they are in the United States Military first and foremost. Except for one other young man from her high school of 3400 who ( thank God) came to USNA as well - there will be no one in her circle of friends who will have any idea of what she is really dealing with. I suspect any of us parents with current Plebes… come this holiday break will notice our kiddos will have have similiar experiences.

If our kiddos had chosen ROTC - they’d be having a ‘real college experience’
with a military overlay. But at a Service Academy they are in the ‘real
military’ with a college overlay - HUGE difference.

I was sharing these thoughts with my daughter in a phone conversation
yesterday and I said: "I guess there’s a reason it’s called the NAVAL -
Academy - where NAVY comes first. She laughed and said : "You’re right mom, it’s not called “The United States Academy of Naval Science.” Her laugh was like balm to my mother’s heart. She has her moments like all of our young
people do there at USNA, but her laugh comforted me to realize that she
‘get’s it’ and will continue to survive and thrive there in a military
first, college second world.