My NJROTC Experience

Have you ever tried to rush something and now you wish you could go back and do it again? I never thought I would say this but I wish I could go back to my Naval Junior Reserves Officer Training Corps (NJROTC) High school days. I underestimated those days, and now I wish it could return. I miss riding the “Big Cheese” (bus) three to four hours, the long hours of practice, the “monkey suit”(uniform), the grass parties (lots of exercise that hurt), the long lectures filled with yelling Help us sir” every time we did something wrong, motivating others, telling people not to quit because if they do they fail the team, the eight- nine minute routines, the attitudes , the ten minute inspection, feeling sick until the whole competition is over, the seventy curl ups and 30 push ups, the last “Oorah” before the final routine, having my best friend beside me through everything…
That was the hardest year of NJROTC experience. I was not only trying to adjust to high school, but I had to leave the school where all my memories were made and go to a completely different school where I did not know anyone. I had new instructors, new classes, a new rank, and I was expected to meet a new set of friends. I had to adjust to what the world felt like it was coming to around me. When I transferred schools I decided to get serious about NJROTC because that’s what I loved to do. Drill platoon is like a mini family, maybe 60 cadets marching on a specific cadence, twenty- two females /twenty-two males doing curl ups and pushups, grass parties wither we won or lost (mostly for our attitudes we had during practices or during the competition), cold lunch which tasted like it had been sitting in a tin pan all day, overnight hotel trips, a lot of yelling to get us in line, a lot of being in the heat feeling like we were under the devils armpit himself, and bonds that felt like they could never be