salience
November 8, 2002
So this is the away message I put up before going to class this morning:
how can I have a bad day when BC Bravo Co beat the shit out of NEU Alpha Co this morning in soccer down at Cleveland Circle?! 2-1!! That's right!!! Victory is Deeeeelicious, you Alpha Co jacobos!! okay, okay...that's enough vulgarity for one morning. time to fit in the BC facade once again...class.
Nothing too interesting, right? I was on a soccer high from this morning, and I had to get on Dortona's case for letting me kill him (he's a cadet at NEU, one of the two who are now in school after being drafted and deployed in Kosovo for two years; he's almost 21 and a freshman. Crazy.) during the game, hence the jacobo part.
I am always kinda down when I get back from fun events like that, cause I leave a family and come back to a group of people, nothing close to a family, who can't understand what I am experiencing. It is very frustrating. I try to explain things to Michelle, but I can't. I get too emotional and it's hard for me to just relax and pretend like I have no clue about my life. That being said, I went to my accounting class completely dreading the day. It turned out not to be too bad, and I saw CDT Caraballo on the way to my spanish class. He's a real sweet guy, on the track team here at BC actually. It's always fun to see fellow rotc guys when it's uniform day. Senora Goizueta didn't hate on me too much today, so that was nice. She even tried to make conversation, so I decided to be cordial and I told her about Michelle being in chorale and how I'm going to the concert tonight. After spanish I went to McElroy to buy a ticket for the concert and I had a great experience:
An old man came up to me while I was waiting for the ticket window to open, I think he works somewhere on campus, we seem to have quite a few vets, and shook my hand and explained how he was a veteran. I knew he was an Army vet by the way he looked at me, straight into my eyes. Other service vets are always kinda wary because you can't compare apples and oranges even though all the services have the same goal: they always avoid the eyes. Always. For about five minutes he is shaking my hand and telling me, and everyone else around, how great it is that I am in the rotc program. It was all very embarrassing because it was in the middle of a class change and it was very crowded. I don't like being singled out like that: I can't explain rotc, like I said before, so many of my friends don't even know I'm in the program. Until something like this happens. The veteran told me all about how he had served in WWII, loved jump school, and wanted to make sure I intended to go Airborne. I do, and that made him very happy. And it all made me very happy.
Unexpected recognition like that is all very flattering. I am not commissioned yet, I'm just a kid who is playing soldier. For him to assume that I will one day be worthy enough to serve my country is very humbling. It made me realize what uniform day really means to the staff here at BC. I don't think my fellow peers really understand the choice I am making, which is why I said 'facade' in my away message. BC is such a prestigious, prissy bubble. Very shallow and meaningless.
Incidents like the one I had today make me confident that I am making the right choice in doing rotc.
how can I have a bad day when BC Bravo Co beat the shit out of NEU Alpha Co this morning in soccer down at Cleveland Circle?! 2-1!! That's right!!! Victory is Deeeeelicious, you Alpha Co jacobos!! okay, okay...that's enough vulgarity for one morning. time to fit in the BC facade once again...class.
Nothing too interesting, right? I was on a soccer high from this morning, and I had to get on Dortona's case for letting me kill him (he's a cadet at NEU, one of the two who are now in school after being drafted and deployed in Kosovo for two years; he's almost 21 and a freshman. Crazy.) during the game, hence the jacobo part.
I am always kinda down when I get back from fun events like that, cause I leave a family and come back to a group of people, nothing close to a family, who can't understand what I am experiencing. It is very frustrating. I try to explain things to Michelle, but I can't. I get too emotional and it's hard for me to just relax and pretend like I have no clue about my life. That being said, I went to my accounting class completely dreading the day. It turned out not to be too bad, and I saw CDT Caraballo on the way to my spanish class. He's a real sweet guy, on the track team here at BC actually. It's always fun to see fellow rotc guys when it's uniform day. Senora Goizueta didn't hate on me too much today, so that was nice. She even tried to make conversation, so I decided to be cordial and I told her about Michelle being in chorale and how I'm going to the concert tonight. After spanish I went to McElroy to buy a ticket for the concert and I had a great experience:
An old man came up to me while I was waiting for the ticket window to open, I think he works somewhere on campus, we seem to have quite a few vets, and shook my hand and explained how he was a veteran. I knew he was an Army vet by the way he looked at me, straight into my eyes. Other service vets are always kinda wary because you can't compare apples and oranges even though all the services have the same goal: they always avoid the eyes. Always. For about five minutes he is shaking my hand and telling me, and everyone else around, how great it is that I am in the rotc program. It was all very embarrassing because it was in the middle of a class change and it was very crowded. I don't like being singled out like that: I can't explain rotc, like I said before, so many of my friends don't even know I'm in the program. Until something like this happens. The veteran told me all about how he had served in WWII, loved jump school, and wanted to make sure I intended to go Airborne. I do, and that made him very happy. And it all made me very happy.
Unexpected recognition like that is all very flattering. I am not commissioned yet, I'm just a kid who is playing soldier. For him to assume that I will one day be worthy enough to serve my country is very humbling. It made me realize what uniform day really means to the staff here at BC. I don't think my fellow peers really understand the choice I am making, which is why I said 'facade' in my away message. BC is such a prestigious, prissy bubble. Very shallow and meaningless.
Incidents like the one I had today make me confident that I am making the right choice in doing rotc.
lasaliente, 11:39
