Being a Hokie and Cadet

This past weekend, the freshmen in the Corp finally were turned into upperclassmen. It’s sort of funny now because all of the things that they made us do, we sort of do out of habit. We had to always stay on the right side of the hallway, greet people, and a bunch of other random things that seem pointless. In one instant, all of it disappeared. In a way, it’s sort of comical. Nothing was stopping us from walking down the middle of a hallway or all those other dumb things. We made the choice.

I think it’s hard for people to understand why anyone joins the Corp. At times, I don’t even know why, but now that I look at it, I have learned so much… about other people and myself. Cadets in the Corp think that it’s dumb and that a lot of what we do is dumb, but it actually isn’t. It’s a learning experience.

Every interaction we have with one another is an experience that we learn and grow from. Housing cadets from all the services is also beneficial because we learn more about the other branches than if we were at an academy. We even have interaction with the rest of the Virginia Tech community that we are a part of.

On Friday, the vigil was indescribable. I had always felt that I was a cadet, but for the first time, I truly felt like a Hokie. When we were all there, it didn’t matter what backgrounds we came from, the clothes we were wearing, or anything else. We were a group remembering the lives lost on 4/16. It’s not every day an experience like that happens.

*Oh, and my blog from last week about the drill competition, my company won for the second year in a row. 