Uniformity with individual variation.
I’ve dropped out of UCAD (at least I think so) but I’ve got to be honest: when you aren’t forced to sit in a classroom, it is infinitely harder to sit at your kitchen table and attempt self-guided research. Here are some examples of my failure to read all of my amassed maritime security literature over the past week:
- I walk into the kitchen for a drink and spy my KitchenAid mixer. I reason to myself that it’s been a long time since I have made any bread and should thus throw some dough together while doing my reading. I’m a multi-tasker! Or is that ADHD…..
- Reading. Yes, I am “reading”- but it’s mostly on the Internet. You know the Internet right? The death knell of all meaningful productivity? Sadly, analysis on maritime security is not popping up so much on Failblog.
- Yesterday I rolled into the military office that keeps tabs on me in order to check mail and prepare for upcoming travel to Cape Verde. Someone mentioned that an American officer with a pulse was needed to administer a service academy interview and physical test. Am I free to do it? Sure, why not? I’ve got nothing else going on…I guess…..
So I signed up to give an interview and physical fitness test to a young Senegalese teenager. Handed the documents for review, I felt a tad unqualified to serve in such a capacity. What do these academies look for? Sure I take pride in my own work and service to the flag – but I would hardly paint myself as the poster child for cadethood or midshipmen-ness. I’m a 90 Day Wonder; I failed my first room inspection and I’m super grateful that I enjoyed a college education on my own dime and didn’t have to go marching in circles every Saturday afternoon.
I’m kinda sure I wouldn’t have selected myself for a military academy when I was 18 years old.
Here’s a picture of me combing through the test documents and not reading about maritime security. Is there anything about me in this photo that might suggest that I’m a less than model person to perform this examination?
I’m reading up on how a “cadence pull-up” and “basketball throw” should be measured, and also on how the Army wants me to rate an applicant’s “magnetism” (ahem, I’m not sure I know any Army officers who can be described as magnetic). Tomorrow should be an interesting evolution- definitely a first for me. T’en fais pas though- after 11 years of drinking military Kool-Aid, I certainly know how to turn off my civilian brain and take this whole thing seriously.
More uniformity. Surprisingly, it exists in the local fleet more often than you would think. I tend to thrive off of chaos, yet still manage to maintain a sense of structure. So does Senegal, and so probably will this young man. I expect him to show me that he can balance these two diametrically-opposed necessities that are demanded from a military lifestyle. These kinds of exigencies are certainly prevalent in this country.
It’s kind of an interesting light bulb moment, when you realize that you have learned to balance and merge two seemingly different lives into one. Have I really been subjecting my non-conformist and flighty disposition to military service for over eleven years? It would appear so.
St. Patrick’s Day is this month, and this day also marks the anniversary of my commissioning (getting commissioned on the High Irish-American holiday was shit-house luck, by the way). If you had told Officer Candidate Megan- the one with the bad haircut who fell asleep during her commissioning ceremony that she’d still be playing this game in 2011- she’d have said you were on crack. You never know. It takes all kinds to make this military run.
So out comes the Navy uniform tomorrow. I better not forget to take off my nail polish tonight.