Monday morning started out rough with an ability group run. My Achilles just can’t seem to keep up with the rest of my body, and the pain is agonizing. I’m so frustrated and scared that I may be held back because of this chronic injury. My ability group didn’t do much more work than we did last week (3 miles of jogging, 1 mile of sprint intervals, and 30 minutes of stairs), but my body begs to differ. At this point, I just don’t know what to do about the pain. There’s only so much ibuprofen I can take, and stretching doesn’t help at all. Please, please, please, if you are reading this, send some prayers up for me. I want to complete this course, and I’ve given up far too much to not finish.
For the rest of the day Monday, we had classes on leadership & ethics. For seven. freaking. hours. Yeah, you read that right.
Monday night was very…enlightening. Nicole and I went down to SFC Harris’s office to file some paperwork, and we ended up having a pretty long conversation with one of the recent OCS graduates. She told us how the company is trying to weed the “weak” candidates out by putting them in leadership positions. We just found out who the new squad leaders were that morning, and it broke my heart to know that they might be leaving us soon. Apparently they were the people who were ranked last on the peer evaluations. I thank my lucky stars that I was not elected, because my ego might not be able to take a blow like that. How could anybody possibly receive an accurate peer evaluation at this point in the game? We’ve only been here for 2 ½ weeks. That’s not enough time to see who is going to make a good leader. I’m going to do my best to make sure that our new squad leaders stay here and stay motivated; the cadre don’t need any reasons to recycle people. Needless to say I’m not very impressed with their decision.
After going to bed frustrated and defeated, I woke up sore and tired around 0430 in order to get ready for our second 5-mile foot march. The pace this morning was apparently quicker than the first march, but I survived! It’s incredibly empowering to overcome these physical obstacles. I’m amazed at what my body can do, and I’ve learned that the majority of the time, it’s my head that gives up before my body does. So if I can get in the right mindset, I can literally do anything as long as my body allows it. And trust me, I will push until my body gives out.
(blurry, but there's me, rucking in the background)
("hydrating" with my roommate Nicole (front left), and team leader Lacy (front right))
We sat in the classroom for another seven hours today. Yep, leadership classes are THAT important to the military. In my opinion, leadership is not something you can learn in a classroom – it’s something you have to learn through experience. It’s just like you can’t teach infants how to walk by throwing a PowerPoint presentation at them. But hey, I didn’t win the last election, so I don’t get to make the decisions.
Is that enough whining for one day? For your own sake, please hope that I have a better day tomorrow!
