EN101: Tilia

Hey guys today I want to talk about how the end is almost near for or first semester of our plebe year. Man I can not believe that is is almost over. It seems like only yesterday that we were report for R Day here at West Point. Well actually maybe it seems a little bit farther away but still that was about five months ago. I guess what I really mean to say is that R Day feels so far away but it feels like the semester has flown by. Sometimes I just sit down and look at all the things we have done this year and do not know how we did it all.

For the first six weeks of our time here we learned all the basics of being a cadet and also a soldier. I asked some of my friends back home what they did over the summer and they just said, “You know. Just went to the beach and partied all summer.” Now I know you are thinking that that sounds awesome and way better than Beast, but think about it. We got to rapple off a cliff, fly in a helicopter, shoot M4 rifle, detonate a claymore, and create relationships with our Beast squad that none of our friends back home can relate. To be totally honest Beast sucked going throuhg it but i am glad that I went through it because I have definitely grown from my Beast experience.

Now once we entered the academic year we had to switch off being mindless new cadet to a critical thinking cadet. I know I at least have made the joke when I do something stupid by saying, “What? I am a plebe I can not think for myself.” However, I do feel that now I do not live up to that joke anymore because I have gone from being a new cadet totally dependent on my squad leader to a plebe who can think for himself. Now that we are having to get up by ourselves and navigate West Point by ourselves we have become more independent and more responsible.

Now that we have more time we also have become more responsible or more irresponsible. I feel that having this much time from being in beast to now being in the academic year we are in a sink or swim part of our academic career. I feel that some people do not take advantage of all the time we now have to do their school work and instead just fill it with dead time and absolutely no productivety. However, some people or cadets do use their time wisely and get all their work done in a timely fashion and will later succeed in the lives.

Finally, now that we are in the very final stretch of the school year we need to push for the final stretch. With all the skills and responsibility we have obtained in our time during the academic year and during beast we will finish strong. At least that is the idea. Some people might crash and burn but we can only hope that they do not crash and burn.

I was very confused with the prompt for this assignment and did not know how to exactly go about doing it. After really sitting down and thinking about it I believe I have a good presentation. I am a little nervous to present in front of my classmates but I will do my best. I think this is a fun assignment because you really get to look at yourself and how you grew as a writer.

Does anyone think the In class essay is more practical than the longer essays we are tasked to do? Now I view both as valuable practice and understand the concepts behind both, but just from my small knowledge of the military and also the stories of teachers and friends I believe the short essay might be more practical in our line of work. Writing is of major importance in the military due to the amount of reports, letters, and orders that are written and needed in the average work day. I personally feel that with all of the demands that an Army officer has in his or her life a lot of time is going to be spent on other things than writing, reviewing, and revising one of these papers. I know it is important to have these skills because speeches or important anticipated letters and etc should be prepared of ahead of time and be reviewed and revised but I also feel it would be impractical for an officer to devote his or her time to rewriting all of their reports. If each report and necessary writing piece by an officer was prepared for weeks information would be much slower and I feel as if a constant “traffic jam” would occur. I think the in class essay are more important to the almost as equally important homework essays. These essays prepare us and develop our skills as writers and prepare us for our future in the military. Also on a more short term level these essays and prompts prepare us for what we will see on TEE’s and future English exams in our academic careers. This I feel is more important curently to some of us who could use this TEE grade to boost our class average or counter balance one or two bad homework essay grades. I am wondering if anyone has a similar opinion or if anyone feels that the scenario should be vice versa with a continued emphasis on the long thought out and reformed essays. I am not knocking the revised essay in any way. It is a very important skill to have and it is even more crucial if a person, writer, or officer can use the skills developed at a fast rate like the term end, in class essay, and our future career both academically and militarily will demand. Just curios and trying to get the old word count taken care of.

As the semester comes to a close, I reflect on what I have learned in all of my class. As far as English goes, I have definitely grown in this class. I think the most obvious of the changes I have made since taking this class is my typing skills. I wrote at least the minimum for an A in every 750words submission, so I was typing in that website almost everyday to everyother day. As a result for my want to write 750 words so often combinded with my desire to have it not take long helped my typing skills improve. I feel that writing in that website has improved the accuracy of how I type, especially without looking which was one of my problems with typing as well as not using all of my fingers. Along with that, I can tell that I type faster than I used to, which is going to help me whenever I have to write papers for the rest of my life, so it is a great skill to have gained. 750words helped my typing skills, but spending so much time working on our essays helped me improve on writing quality ones. In high school, English class was spent writing essays in a short amount of time so that we would do well on the AP test, so that just meant writing good enough work. Here we spent almost a month on each essay, which caused me to look deeper into my essays and want to make it the best I could, with helped from my classmates in peerediting. What did everyone else get out of this class?

Hey class, I happen to write my paper on the legalization of marijuana. After putting much time and great effort into it, I realized that no one would know about it unless I post a blog talking about it. My question to you all is, what do you guys think about medical marijuana? I know that yes, we are technically in the army and we will never ever personally experience any of the great benefits this medicine can offer, but this is a current event that is going on in the nation. Throughout California, and some other states, medical marijuana is rapidly expanding and it is starting to become a popular merchandize. Who knows, maybe someday it might be able to be prescribed to people in the military the same way prescription cough medicine, which can also be used as an abusive drug. Anyways, what do you all think about the positives and negatives of medical marijuana, not just for the patient, but for the society itself?

While sitting in Robinson Auditorium listening to Wes Moore speak about his book and his last 10 years of studying his and his counterpart’s lives one particular line stood out to me amongst his tale. It was when he was talking about his publishers deciding on the title of the book. It was not about the author Wes Moore, or even the convict Wes Moore, it was about all the “others” that this world has to offer. They wanted to bring their stories into the light. This got me thinking. There are people who I grew up with, people I knew in a former life that today are merely ghosts of themselves. I knew these people, called them classmates, friends, coworkers and even family. These people today, have lost their way and the world has let them slip- away. Was it their choice to go down the paths that led them inevitably into the dark? Yes. Absolutely. But the question then becomes, did they feel that they had another option? While Wes Moore’s story was one of a diverging path between two young men of similar background and similar environment that led one two success and the other to life without parole, the true story of this book belongs to all the “others” that have been forgotten. This story is for them to realize that they can choose to be more than shadows and for those that have chosen to be more, to be there for the ghosts when they need us. Wes Moore taught me that in this day and age, with the cities and neighborhoods that some underprivileged kids grow up in, choices do not always seem available and it is our job as a society to make sure that all the “others” have the opportunity to choose a different life.

Today’s lecture, presented by Wes Moore, was something that I could relate closely to. During the entire speech, I saw a little bit of myself in each story and event he shared, and I hoped that I would one day stand in his steps, giving inspirational speeches to young adults in hopes of presenting a new viewpoint in their lives.

Everyone we run into has their own little story. We are unique in our own special way, and our stories can amaze anyone we tell it to.

I came from South Korea and entered 4th grade in America, knowing one simple word: Apple. I acquired that word during English class one day in Korea, when we learning the alphabets. We learned that A is for apple, B is for bear, and C is for cat. My memory failed me, so I was stuck with only one of the three knowledge that I learned that day. I never bothered to go back to visit that lesson again, which is why my English was so terrible. My first two years were spent studying with the ESL (English as secondary language) class, where I learned how to say stubbles of incomprehensible words. Needless to say, my grades were atrocious. I gave up on studying and began focusing on my friends, who were not the best influence to me. I began going out, and would not stop seeing my friends even when my grades suffered. This choice I made impacted not only my grades but also the relationship with my family. As my parents became disappointed in me and saw their dreams of my future crushed, we became aloof as a family and began getting into more fights, mainly regarding my grades. This continued until sophomore in high school. Then, my parents made that one decision that completely changed my life. Just like Wes, my parents decided to send me to a military school; a school called Valley Forge Military School.

Since this is the school where I entered with a clean slate, I find it appropriate that a fresh paragraph is started. I enrolled as a cadet with my GPA lower than any of you can imagine. I was not exceptional in any sports, and was rather shy since I had no experience with stepping in front of a group of people. My beginning days at Valley Forge were not any better than how Wes described his. I woke up to cadets who were the same age or younger than I was screaming into my room, demanding that I put both my feet on the cold, vanilla tiles that covered my floor. I reached around my desk to find my glasses and rushed outside my door and stood at attention for a few minutes. After a full accountability was taken, we put on our gym alphas and went outside at 0500 for some PT. Now, this is where problems started up for me. First, I am a terrible runner, and to make matters even worse, I have not worked out for two years. Second, my chains of command were extremely grumpy that morning because of a cadet like Wes. One cadet simply refused to get off his bed, and when the higher ups came in (CO, XO, 1st Sgt), he sluggishly got up and stood with an attitude. All this, combined with terrible food, no social contacts outside of school and calling Valley Forge my new “home” simply made it unbearable for me.

Wes emphasized the importance of wealth and status, and how such opportunities changed the path the two incredibly similar individuals took. Those two components are important in order to attain as many opportunities one can grab onto, but they are not the shortcut to success in life. I believe that holding onto that chance given and persevering through hardship is much more important. I can say this by giving personal experiences that I went through, as well as seeing my close friends at Valley Forge change. When I got the fact that I’m stuck at Valley Forge for the remainder of my high school years through my thick skull, I began to do much better. I became thankful for this unique opportunity that my parents gave me, and began to challenge myself by seeking academic improvement. During senior year, I became that leader that I looked up to and feared. I led an entire company of my peers, became the poster boy for my school as their annual “successful cadet” who they commercialize. Whenever a VIP came to our school, I was the one they called to give the tour and to make the first impression on the school. Also, I was accepted to the school that I would not have even dreamed of attending with my old life.

While I was able to turn my life around by accepting the chance given and trying hard, others were not so fortunate. There were numerous students who kept their initial attitude that got them to the school in the first place. They graduated with the same attitude but now worse off than before because they squandered that opportunity. We look at the more fortunate and wealthier than us and say that life is unfair. How come they get all that while I am stuck with just this? Grab onto whatever is provided and you may be surprised by how far it can lead you.

For this post I thought I would change things up a little. We tend to beat the days topic to death so I think this could be a fun post for people to get some comments in on and change-up the mood.

Today as me and two other friends were finishing up with lunch we decided we would walk to the lecture together. Somehow the mess hall always seems to turn in to one giant maze when I have to find an exit other than the one I use every day. So me and my two other friends are searching for the main entrance by Washington statue so we can head to the lecture. As we walk through the poop deck one friend quickly shouts my name because somehow I ended up going the complete opposite direction they were going. Standing under the poop deck happened to be three different Sgt. Majors… talk about horrible luck.

As we walk away we hear our very own Sgt. Major Fletcher call all three of us back. Standing there at parade rest, preparing for the worst was not the best feeling. Each Sgt. Major took one of us and lectured us for talking and laughing for about three minutes. It was one of those moments where the only thing that comes to mind is either no excuse… or an excuse that you know would only cause more harm to your case. After we were all three let go we ran in to Sgt. Major Burnett who had witnessed the entire thing. With a smile he said “how are you guys doin? Probably not so good now huh?”. It was amazing how I could go from getting verbally beaten by one Sgt. Major to being built right back up by another.

This was not a very pleasant experience but it is one I will always remember. It is a story I can now look back at and laugh.

I know that everyone has some funny “only at West Point” stories. Post ‘em if you got ‘em.

Today’s Wes Moore lecture has most definitely been the most influential for me. Wes Moore’s message was very meaningful to me and really got me thinking about what I’m doing with my life.

Although I did not have a childhood like Wes Moore I was able to relate to him. Even if he did not make the decision to go to Valley Forge or even to stay he later made the committed himself to the school. Originally I was not very excited about coming to the Academy. Similarly to Wes my parents really pushed me to come. During cadet candidate basic training at the prep school I was set on quitting. I talked to my coach and wrote my parents telling them how miserable I was and that I just wanted to go home. My coach convinced me finish up basic and my parents said about the same. It has definitely been a journey since the first day I first reported. I have often questioned why I’m here. I mean I could be at home with my family, going to a regular college, basically doing whatever I want so why would I choose to come to the Academy?

After Wes Moore’s lecture I realized how selfish it would be of me to just quit. Yeah it would be easy to quit. I could have a “normal” life. All I would ever think about was me and how I felt. Now I think about all the people who helped me to get here, everything that my parents have sacrificed to help me be successful and happy. The even bigger picture of our country and the people who depend on our military. The commitment of West Point is far larger than the individual cadet. Yes we are sacrificing a lot but we are sacrificing to make our country a better place.

Every since I was little I knew that in some way I wanted to help people. People who needed someone to care. When I was little I thought that would be easy. I now see that there is a great deal of sacrifice involved in changing the world. Although I hate my life some days I have to remind myself that my sacrifices will pay off in the end. We are all sacrificing for the greater good.

We all made the decision to come to West Point for different reasons but we all made the decision and it will change us forever. Who knows, any one of us could have been the other Wes Moore.

As a class we recently read an excerpt from Wes Moore as well as listening to his lecture. As a person who likes to feel concerned about social issues I found his lecture to be the excerpt to be the most entertaining and the most interesting which I have heard here at West Point thus far. I find it to be incredible that someone from such circumstance could overcome such difficulties. It is clear from the way that spoke that he was not quick to give himself much credit for his successes, rather making the argument that his success is in large part due to the tact and social circumstances which he was blessed which not everyone may have been blessed with. I think that his own work and his determination must have played a large role. I wrote the essay with a little bit of a different intention. Tell me what you all think.