U.S. Naval Academy Summer Seminar 2014

My experience at the 2014 U.S. Naval Academy Summer Seminar, Session 3 in Annapolis, Maryland from June 14 Saturday - June 19 Thursday. 6 days of physical, mental, and academic training. Nothing like anything I have gone through before. One of the best experiences of my life in just one week alone. I learned so much about the Academy and its intense lifestyle, so different from civilians. They have to be tough and strong in all aspects to survive. I admire the people that attend the Naval Academy greatly, finding a new found appreciation for all that they do. So without further ado, I will try to recap, to the best of my ability, my experience during that amazing week.

Day 1: Saturday- I flew overnight from Oakland to Boston and that was around 5 hours. Good thing I met a really nice guy at the airport before we left that was going to the Academy too and we were going to be on the same connecting flight. We stopped in Boston, waited around for an hour and at around 11am Saturday flew to BWI. It was a shorter flight, around an hour and a half. A lot of guys on the plane were going to the Academy too. That was really cool. And they actually wanted to attend the Naval Academy for college, while I just went for the experience. When we got to BWI, midshipmen from the Academy picked us up in their white uniforms. Then a bunch of us got on the buses from the Academy and the ride there was around 45 minutes. As a girl from California, I was captivated by all the tall trees bordering the highway. Before we arrived at the school, they told us that before we got off we had to tuck in all our clothes. Then we went to check in and took our luggage up to our room after we got a bunch of free stuff (5 different colored T-shirts, a dry-fit T-shirt, 3 pairs of basketball shorts, sweatpants, sweatshirt, a bag, a cap, and a water bottle). Afterward, looking back, that was literally all the stuff I used that whole week. I over packed too much, after asking my squad leader why they told us to bring all those things in the list, she just said they keep forgetting to change it. I had to lug my duffel bag up to the third floor where I would be staying. I ended up having 3 other roommates, 4 of us in a room so we had to take less than 5 minute showers when we usually got only 20 mins sometimes after PT (physical training) for all of us to shower. I learned to take super quick showers, after usually taking 30 min showers at home. Don’t worry I was clean. We ended up taking 2 showers a day usually, because we would do a lot of PT and activities that required showering after. We had dinner at Bancroft Hall that night around 6:30pm and at first I thought the food sucked, but the next day after PT, when you are hungry, you will eat anything. Overall, it was fine. The food was served family-style being passed around. When we were done and had to leave, we would do this thing got a “shove-off” which was fun. You had to be there. We ate with people in our squad. So everyone at camp was divided into “companies” (Alpha which I was in, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo), and then “platoon” (I was in 4th platoon), and then squads of around 8 to 9 people ( I was in 3rd squad). Most of the week I just interacted with people in my squad which we got to know real well and sometimes people in our companies during academic workshops.

Day 2: Sunday- They woke us up with loud music at 5:30am (I knew I would need more time so I set my alarm to 5:15am) and then we had 5 mins to get ready. We were required to sleep in our clothes issued by the Academy, we (Alpha company) wore blue shirts on the first day and today we wore our white shirts. Near the end of camp did I realize after they told us that the image on the T-shirt represented a different branch of the academy like submarine warfare, Navy Seals, or aviation so that was really cool. The training they said was supposed to be “light” that day, I thought it was fine although a lot of people had to sit out because either they didn't push themselves hard enough or were out of shape. You’d be surprised by the amount of people who came to the Academy not realizing the rigorous physical training involved. Good thing months prior I did quite a few push ups and sprints, also because I play volleyball so conditioning comes with that too. I just wished I did more pull ups. The sit ups, ab work, and squats were pretty easy for me, although a lot of the “stronger” guys struggled with that. But that could also be just because I am best at those. So PT was for like 45 mins but a very intense 45 mins. You’d be surprised at how many reps you can do in that amount of time when you push yourself and alongside other people. Then we had breakfast after we all took super fast showers to rinse off. Church services were offered because it was Sunday, but I didn't go. I just stayed in my room, along with my roommates and tried to study my “rates” which was this 2-sided piece of Navy information that you were supposed to memorize for a mock “indoctrination night” on Wednesday where they yell at you for 20-30 mins while you have to keep your “bearing” a straight face and answer questions they yell at you and do PT if you or other people around you mess up or do not know it. It’s supposed to be really intense (there are YouTube videos on it!) and the biggest glimpse to life at the Academy. I ended up napping because I got tired. Then we were supposed to have a light lunch because we were scheduled to have the CFA after (which is the Candidate Fitness Assessment) that everyone has to pass to be considered to be accepted into the Academy. That was supposed to be the “hardest” part of the week. I passed (notified by my squad leader afterward) with 40 ft on the bball throw, hung on the pull up bar for 13 secs, shuttle run 10-something secs, 60 sit ups in 2 mins, and 30 push ups in 2 mins, and a mile run of 6:54 which was a new personal record for me. I think when you have to do something, you just make up your mind on it and strive to do the best you can. I saw like 2 guys throw up during the mile, maybe from being nervous, a big lunch, or something. They didn't look out of shape so maybe they were just sick. I felt like I would throw up too when I looked at them doing it on like the first lap. The school actually had garbage cans lined up all around the track because they expected there to be some people to throw up always. I didn't believe it at first until I saw it with my own eyes. I just thought it was funny. Afterward I felt really accomplished. The “hardest” part was supposedly over. I took a shower in my room and then we had dinner. After dinner we watched a special presentation of “Leap Frogs” which was where Navy Seals parachuted down onto the field. It was special because it was Father’s Day and only was during the 3rd session. That was cool and they had a Q&A session with them about what they do. Then we had bearing contests within our platoon which was really fun. I am not that good at keeping a straight face because I tend to smile and laugh too much, but watching other people that can do it under all circumstances was really admirable. We had “Blue and Gold” meetings every night within the Alpha company, and had a “count-off”. They turned out to be really fun. Lights out was around 10pm. I forgot to mention earlier, but on Saturday the first day we had a lot of military drills and drill contests within our company. Saturday was probably my least favorite day because I had to get used to everything and the pace of things, but after the first day, the fun level just kept going up. Sunday, today, was pretty good after the CFA.  Also, another side note is we had to leave our doors open at a 90 degree angle except when changing or showering. We had to wear caps when outside except during PT, and call all officers “sir” or “ma’am” whenever we saw them, which was a lot. On Saturday we visited the Memorial Museum too which was super nice. It was like a palace on the inside, made of marble and whatnot, and had a magnificent view.

Day 3: Monday- Today we started our academic workshops. PT was again at 5:30am. Then we had breakfast. PT isn't too hard, well it’s not easy, but if you have been working out and stuff beforehand it’s not too bad. I survived. A lot of people drop on the ground though out of line when we do “round trips” which is basically like running and shuffling and stuff up and down. Then we do lots of stretching, push ups, sit ups, and ab work. Something special , which is probably the hardest for everyone including me was the “brave-heart” sprints on the football field. That was a bit challenging but I still pushed through it. It was definitely something different. Then we took quick showers and had breakfast. Everything tastes so good after you've been working out. I ate stuff that I usually wouldn't eat just because I knew I would be hungry later. I ate pretty healthy that week, opting out of chips, sweet drinks, and cookies and other junk food because I knew it would be bad for that week of intense training. Being smart with my choices, I made the right decision. When we cleaned out our rooms at the end of the week, a lot of the guys’ rooms had junk food wrappers all in their trash cans from sneaking food and buying from the vending machines. I didn't have any snacks other than during meals that week. I probably had the best physical performance for myself that week. Plus we drank lots of water as we were required to fill up our water bottles constantly. Also during academic workshops, when you are feeling sleepy, lacking oxygen, they recommended that we drank lots of water. I don’t think I had ever drank that much water before in that week. So after breakfast, everyone had different workshops. When I applied for this program, I had chosen mine in order of preference. I am not a math, science, engineering type of person so I chose the more humanities side of classes. I had Intro to Martial Arts and Foundations of Leadership before lunch. Martial Arts was one of my favorite classes. It was pretty fun. Then I had Character Development Seminars and Intro to Economic Reasoning after lunch. They were cool too because I learned some new stuff. Then that night we had dinner and squad time and also I forgot to mention we had a lot of Q&A sessions about Academy life and admissions throughout the week. Then one time we met with specific sport coaches to learn more about your sport and recruiting. Then we had time to shower and stuff again and there was the Blue and Gold meeting with our company at around 9:45pm every night. Plus that night we had a “secret” “spirit mission” which was playing capture the flag in the dark. My squad along with a few others were scheduled to play that night. So we pretended to be asleep, our squad leader “woke us up” in our rooms around 11pm and we played on the football field which is huge until around 1pm-ish. No one actually won because the playing area was huge and with a lot of people. We wore face paint to look all tough and so that was fun. My roommates and I went to our room to take a shower after because we had sweat a lot so we probably went to bed at around 2pm. But the whole thing was part of the experience. We had to wake up the next morning at 5:30am for PT and boy were we tired. I couldn't stop yawning. And for the whole day. My eyes were droopy, being sleep-deprived.

Day 4: Tuesday- We woke up that morning, did PT as usual, but this time we had the pleasure of having a NAVY SEAL run it that morning and wow did we do lots of reps! I was tired to begin with from the night before but I forced myself to work hard with everything. We did around 300 push ups total (I probably did like 150 because I did 1 for every 2), lots of sit ups and flutter kicks (for ab work), and the most burpees I have ever done in my life. I even saw guys around me drop to their knees because they couldn't do anymore push ups on their toes. That’s how intense it was. Plus everyone, and I do mean everyone was dripping with sweat like the Niagara Falls. It was a sight to see. It did push me to my limits and I actually am proud of myself for going through with everything. Afterward it felt great! Not many could say they went through a Navy Seal workout! Plus everyone around me was pretty motivated and that was great to see. Then of course I took a shower or else it would've been disgusting. We then had breakfast and then academic workshops. I had Intro to Lit, probably one of my favorite in-class workshops, because the professor was really excited, his personality was great, and he had some new, interesting ideas I had never heard of. I met lots of new people, mostly guys, from everywhere across the country, one even from another country, this week so that was really fun. Then I had Perspectives in the Past, which was a history class on ancient gods and stuff. Normally I like history, but after last night and getting near no sleep, I fell asleep in class. Actually I fell asleep like a couple times and finally the professor caught me. He said “What’s your name?” and my eyes flew open. I have never been caught for sleeping before, although I have probably accidentally fallen asleep back in high school too. But he was really nice about it and said midshipmen fall asleep all the time and that it is part of the experience. I apologized and said I had drank a lot of water and tried so hard to not fall asleep. My head kept tilting back and the room was dark too with the lights down during a presentation and I just couldn't help myself. But honestly someone else from my squad warned me earlier that a lot of people fell asleep during that class because it was just so boring and the teacher has a monotone voice. The professor was really understanding though. The funny thing is afterward, when I recalled the incident, some guys were like “ Yeah! I was in your class when that happened.” and then gave me a high-five. I was like… Umm okay, whatever, and laughed it off. Then I had New Role of Foreign Languages after lunch which was a pretty fun class. We learned a lot and watched some hilarious videos. The instructor was a commander from Japan and he was part of an exchange program and we learned some things about him. Apparently, he is pretty high ranking. Then Damage Control Workshop was probably my favorite, for last. And probably everyone else’s favorite too. You get all wet while trying to fix leaks in pipes and use high pressure water hoses in another station. Altogether it was pretty fun. I got soaked like I had been swimming in just my clothes. We were required to bring a separate set of clothes from head to toe to change in because that’s how soaked we got. We were drenched but it was worth it. The hot, humid air felt pretty nice too. Keep in mind that these were only the workshops I chose, although I kind of wished I chose more hands-on workshops since most of mine, except for a few, were mostly sitting in classes. I know that the most popular and fun ones I've heard are the chemistry, physics, oceanography, and ones where you get to actually go on board on the boats/ships. They looked pretty fun to me from a distance. Then that night after dinner, I did some extra studying on the rates we were supposed to memorize and then we had the blue and gold meeting, count off and activities and went to bed.

Day 5: Wednesday- Today was supposed to be the most rigorous, pushing you to your limits until you break day, but known for being the most fun. This was probably the best day. We woke up at normal time and had a supposedly light breakfast, and today was the day for “Sea Trials.” Normally during Plebe Summer it is like for 15 hours of intense physical training. But today just for this seminar it was cut down to 7 hours. I, along with other people, were pretty excited for this. There were 5 stations. The first one for us was the PT on the track. We did a lot of push ups, sit ups, flutter kicks, squats, planked, sprints, played tug-a-war, did sit ups with a rope, and ran with a rope over our heads, and relay races in our squads with gear. It’s harder than it looks. We had to bear crawl across the field from each activity. That was supposed to be the toughest station, but we pushed through and had fun with it. I was drenched with sweat along with everyone else. I didn't know it was possible to sweat that much. You learn a lot about yourself and other people that whole week. Then the second station we ran to I think it’s called Hospital Point, that was quite a run with our backpacks and stuff, but the scenery on the bridge over the Severn River was worth it. Then we did activities in water fully clothed doing sit ups linked arms with other people, nice and tight, and rolled around in sand afterward. I had never been so dirty, but so worth it! It was such a good experience. We then went on a raft and paddled, racing to see which squad was the fastest, and we did PT on the side on the grass too. Altogether it was tough, it was a whole lot of fun! Then we took buses to this E-course place, the seats in the bus was covered with black bags because they expected us to be wet, sandy, and just plain dirty and they were right. We all packed in into the buses. We probably smelled pretty bad to any outsiders, but we were squeezed so tight, no seats for everyone, that it was all the same. Our squad leaders filled our water bottles in between and had some snacks. They were so helpful and I still wonder how they could carry so much in their backpacks while running. It is amazing. Up to the E-course with ropes and logs and all kinds of activities inside the 1 ½ mile course, we went through with our squad having our squad leader lead the way. My squad was considered pretty fit so we “breezed” through it. Don’t get me wrong, it was challenging physically, but we pushed through. Sometimes, or often, people get lost or fall during the course. My group was pretty encouraging, but we were all pretty motivated and fit so we had a nice pace. We climbed rope walls, jumped wooden walls, logs, hung on to ropes, tight-rope walking and just plain running/hiking up and down the course. It was pretty intense. We crawled through ropes where I got a nasty bruise/rope burn from several activities, but the pain was nothing compared to the accomplishment we felt at the end. I fell slightly a couple of times but that’s normal because it happens to everyone. Everyone in my squad kept up with the team. We had to wear these sweatpants that was issued to us in the beginning of camp to simulate the pants that midshipmen had to wear during the actual thing and that was definitely something different. We were all so dirty and probably smelly afterward, after being in water, sand, and dirt. But it was all super fun and a great experience! The physical part was hard but rewarding! My thighs burned during some parts of the “hiking/running” from going uphill but I pushed through. I cannot even imagine what the plebes have to go through. Some intense stuff. Then we had MRE (military rations) for lunch. That was not the best, but part of the experience. Then we got black flagged which meant we couldn't go on with finishing sea trials because of the temperature, heat, and exceeding humidity so we had to take a bus back to the Academy. We were all a little bit bummed with not finishing the trials because we still had 2 stations left. One with something to do with logs and martial arts and another with being in the pool, swimming, jumping off the high dive, and treading water. Our company leader told us that we had gone through the hardest and most fun ones already before being black-flagged so were lucky. We had 20 minutes to shower for all four of us when we got back so we had to take really fast ones. I think I still had sand in my ear the day after. Then we got to go down to the midshipmen store (to buy souvenirs and stuff), our squad leader took us, not everyone got to go I learned afterwards, and bought some shirts. Then we went back into formation inside and had “indoc night.” Everyone was probably excited, nervous, and sweaty at the same time. This was supposed to be the most intense experience of the whole week. We faced the wall until our squad leaders came out and started yelling at us randomly. If you are lucky, you only got yelled at once or twice. My roommate got yelled at because I didn't know something and I had to count her push ups for her. I got yelled at and you have to address everyone with “sir or ma’am.” My squad leader told me that even if you know everything, they find something to yell at you anyways. That’s the whole deal. It gets pretty ridiculous and chaotic with all the yelling going on around. I thought a lot of it was funny, but that’s just me. It can be stressful for a lot of people who actually wanted to go to the Academy. We had to keep our bearing for a long time, but I almost smiled and laughed with a few instances like some guy across from me was getting yelled at and one called a lady detailer “sir” accidentally, instead of “ma’am” under pressure and he got all the detailers to come over and yell at him. I almost burst out laughing, but didn't under the circumstances, otherwise they would come yell at me. After it was over, I felt so relieved. It was like a load had been lifted off finally. It had been hanging over me for so long. I had been thinking about this months prior. I don’t like being yelled at, but neither does anyone else. We then went to our rooms and I actually didn't know what to do because before I would just study my rates. Now I just felt free. We were ordered to pack because we would be leaving tomorrow. We had dinner that night, Blue and Gold meeting (our last one!), and we cleaned our rooms.

Day 6: Thursday- Throughout the week we had lots of Q&A sessions which got to the point to almost be too much. We woke up the last day at 5:30am, given like an hour to clean and pack everything. Our rooms were inspected and then we had breakfast. It was a pretty chill morning, than what we were used to. Then we had a super long session at Alumni Hall, this huge pavilion inside. They talked about all the different branches of study at the Academy and more Q&As about admissions, on top of all the ones we had during the week. So that was super long. It felt like eternity. That was probably my least favorite part during the whole week. We sat there and got to get up and stretch once in a while, but altogether it was pretty boring. Most of us were so tired and sleep-deprived from the week we were so close to falling asleep. I drank so much water. Then we had a short awards ceremony. Our company, Alpha, won most motivated! We worked our butts off and it paid off!. Everyone who attended the seminar got a neat certificate and we took pictures and said our farewells and left Annapolis. I, along with many others took the academy buses to the BWI airport, while others had their parents pick them up. I had a really long flight ahead of me. Like 5 hours to Phoenix and then 2 more hours back to San Francisco. I waited in the airport with people from the seminar. The whole airport was swarming with them. The whole week we had to have the uniform of shirts tucked in and bball shorts and never ever before in my life have I done that. So first thing I did was change into other clothes and flip flops. It felt awesome. Also I wore not a smidge of a makeup the whole week because there was no time and I would've sweated it all off anyways with the amount we had all been sweating. During those 6 days I met the most people I have ever met in the amount of time. It was really cool and exciting! A lot of people were from key states like Michigan and Massachusetts. My roommates alone were from Virginia and New Jersey. I heard there were people from Hawaii and Alaska even. So people who applied and got into the seminar were from all over. All the people I talked to were very smart, good at sports, focused, determined, and highly motivated. It was incredible and extremely interesting to learn so much about the academy and to meet all the different people! The PT during the week was pretty intense and rigorous to push you to their limits and break you, but if you are prepared beforehand and are mentally strong, it is doable! I smile and laugh a lot, and although a lot people were surprised that I wanted to attend this seminar and didn't believe I would survive it without throwing up or crying (neither did I!), I did it! It is probably due to the fact when you have to do something that you set your mind to, you just find a way to do it. I grew as a person and a lot of things I learned and experienced at the Academy taught me to apply being a leader into regular life in any circumstances. I’m so glad and privileged to have had the experience to attend this amazing week! It wasn't easy, but worth it! I would encourage anyone who could, to apply to this. It will change your life. And that’s okay if you don’t plan on going to the Academy (like I didn't, but most people did), you still learn a lot and you can apply it back to your life. It’s an experience you don’t want to miss and you can just think about it as boot camp. It’s really worth it, and I had the best week ever here.

*Also in addition to everything I mentioned, I might have forgotten a few things because we literally did so much. We had hilarious skits making fun of our squad leaders, talks within our squads, just really funny moments that you never want to forget, and Q&A with the same gender midshipmen to answer any awkward questions, and so much other stuff that you just had to be there, in the moment. I couldn't possibly mention EVERYTHING here, you would have to experience it yourself. There were so many instances where I laughed until my abs hurt. I am so blessed I had this amazing opportunity!