Plebe year Part 1 – Applications process

WOW I was thinking back over my four years at the academy and I struck me that I should write about my times there by year, so here it goes.

Any story with me and West Point needs to start with the application process because that was a battle in and of itself. The first time I saw West Point was my freshman year of high school and while I was there I cried and knew that I was supposed to be at this school. Thus started the journey that I ended just a couple months ago. I opened a file with West Point the first day of my junior year. My SAT scores were no good at all so for almost a year straight I took a section of math and a section of English everyday trying desperately to bring my scores into the competitive range or better. Then I applied for the summer seminars I was rejected from the West Point on but I got into the Naval Academy one and believe it or not it was a great experience it cemented in my mind that I was meant for the military and it was only a matter of which academy I was going to go to if I got into either. Then the medical test I was disqualified for a couple things and I got waivers but sat on them for a long time so I started to call Dodmerb every day to try and get my paper work moving forward and either because I bugged them so much or because it was time I was cleared. 

I received two separate rejection letters from West Point but that was never the last word for me. Something I learned from my mother is that no is just a yes waiting to happen. So I fixed the problems played a team sport just because they wanted me to, I had done karate for 3.5 years and had got my black belt and was teaching it but they wanted a team sport so I did track and football even though I had no idea how to play.

Finally the battle in my mind was over I was going to go to West Point no matter what, I would do ROTC for  year and the reapply then I got the letter and I was not accepted into the class of 2011 at the Naval Academy and I was like ok this is fine. Then I got the letter that was NOT accepted into the class of 2011 at West Point, however I had the option to go to Marion Military Academy to improve my English scores and I could reapply and coming to the class of 2012. So I was like ok I can do this this is great I have an in. then then a miracle happened. Two kids in my district who had gotten into to West Point decided to go to Harvard instead of West Point. I call them the “stupid smart kids.” It is because of them that I was called 6 weeks before the start of Beast and while high on pain killers because of my wisdom teeth was told by my congressman’s office that I was accepted into the class of 2011 at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

This was a road that I could not have completed without my mother I learned from her that if you want something if you really want something the only things that truly stands in your way is hard work and it is the ones willing to do the hard work that are going to succeed.

Teddy Roosevelt said, “There is not disgrace in a failure only in a failure to try.”