All this talk about dreading returning to the Academy , even years after graduation, has me wondering if it is the right place for my son. Granted I'm coming from the civilian side of things, but I have multiple degrees from multiple universities and love returning to all of them. Do you dread returning just because it was so academically demanding, emotionally draining, devoid of a social life, something else or a bit of everything?
It's time to trot out a well-known saying at USNA: "bad place to be, great place to be from." Once graduated, USNA alumni, in general, enjoy returning. My husband's class, for one of its major milestone reunions, had 725 members of a 981 sized class attend. Reunion weekends occur every football weekend in the fall, not just the one labeled Homecoming, and jam the town. Our sponsor alumni family return for weddings, reunions and just plain visits - going for dawn runs around the Yard, hitting the Mid Store, going to service at the Chapel, meeting with area classmates at a favorite DTA (downtown Annapolis) haunt. There are many grads who eventually settle in the area and in greater DC, and they involve themselves in sponsoring mids and other USNA programs. There are 9 USNA alumni amongst our neighbors. There are always grads walking around Annapolis.
Of course, there are some who never set foot on the Yard again. It is a grind, a long slog, and after goofing off during a break or long weekend, it's no different than going back into the office on Monday morning.
It's a different "collegiate" experience, but those years of mutual slogging bind them together in a unique way. They all go to work for the same corporation afterwards, the Navy-Marine Corps arm of DOD, and continue to see each other there. They are commonly rooted in Yard experience, and those "bad days" stories emerge later as lightly told tales of shared survival. Still having those feelings years later - like muscle memory. I believe these cultural similarities extend across all 5 Academies.
I was back in the Pentagon a month ago for a ceremony, and had anxiety dreams that night of some crisis I had failed to prepare for and had to brief senior admirals on, completely unprepared. All because I was back in the Pentagon for 4 hours. I woke at 0200 with pounding heart and dry mouth. Husband asked "what's wrong?" "Pentagon dream." "Oh, got it, the usual?" He had two tours there.
The SAs are intense pressure-cookers, with really high highs and low lows. Once mids commit to their service obligation at the start of junior year, they know they can't walk away without severe consequences. That environment makes for deep-cut experiential memories.