Plebe Venting

ARandomMid

ARandomMid

USNA '27
Joined
Sep 15, 2022
Messages
43
As a foreword for those '28 and beyond hopefuls, I do not regret my choice. I cannot see myself anywhere else. Do not let this deter you from pursuing USNA. The positives of this place heavily outweigh the negatives.

I'm a plebe at USNA and I am writing this out because I've been feeling down lately. To be honest, I've been feeling down for most of this school year. In the beginning, right after Plebe Summer, I had a place. I was part of a team and I was doing really well. The final cut for the team was a few months into the academic year and I did not make it. Since then I've been floundering about trying to find my way and a new place in this whirlwind of a school. This school year has come and gone, yet I can't say that I have truly found that place yet. I feel a bit empty and it feels like I'm just going through the motions so that I can finish the year, climb Herndon, and get on to PROTRAMID. I have no intention of leaving, but I need support and some words of encouragement or anecdotes would be great. Youngster year just can't seem to come soon enough. I'm feeling tired of quite a few things about this place and need to vent a bit. Hopefully this is the right place to do that.

Here goes:
  • I'm tired of not being able to choose my workout at 0530
  • I'm tired of usually having 15 minutes or less to hygiene and get to chow calls after said workout. Plebe Summer never ends.
  • I'm tired of having morning quarters formation and mando meal
  • I'm tired of having 10 minutes to eat lunch before needing to scamper off to some “training” or event
  • I'm tired of noon meal trainings that either waste time or aren't considerate of my time
  • I'm tired of not utilizing my free time between classes as well as I could (this one's on me)
  • I'm tired of sitting in gen-ed classes that I don't care about (thank goodness I'll never take plebe chem or any English class ever again)
  • I'm tired of doing moboards
  • I'm tired of having my door open to 90 degrees and not being able to shut out the noise of Bancroft Hall until after 2100
  • I'm tired of wearing some sort of uniform all day every day
  • I'm tired of imposter syndrome. I know that I'm not inadequate, but that doesn't stop the feelings of being behind or worse than the rest of my classmates.
  • I'm tired of eating at King Hall (honestly the fod isn't terrible, but it's getting repetitive and it's hard to eat healthily. Thank you to the awesome King Hall employees who somehow manage to put up with all of the brigade’s shenanigans)
  • I'm tired of the constant outward cynicism and sarcasm that some people project
  • I'm tired of not being there for my family and people that I care about as much as I want to
  • I'm tired of not having found MY people yet. I ave some close friends, but I still feel like I'm going through the motions or that I don't spend as much time with them as I'd like to. I wonder if they feel similarly.
  • I'm tired of chopping and squaring corners. I just want to walk around like a normal person for crying out loud
  • I'm tired of thinking about how easy I would have had it if I had gone to Air Force instead
  • I'm tired of not having air conditioning and sweating up a flood when just sitting in my room
  • I'm tired of being treated like a child
  • I'm tired of not being able to talk to upperclass like a normal human being
  • I'm tired of paperwork (this one's not going away)
  • I'm tired of using two-half-ply toilet paper that you can see through. Sandpaper would be a nice change
  • I'm tired of hearing Pipes and Drums practice the Top Gun theme outside my window for hours on end
  • I'm tired of having a burnt-out firstie as a squad leader
  • I'm tired of having a small closet and little/no storage
  • I'm tired of proknow
  • I'm tired of tucking in my shirt all of the time
  • I'm tired of wearing SDBs in DTA
  • I’m tired of the way some people treat you when wearing SDBs in public
  • I'm tired of not being able to drive
  • I'm tired of sleeping on top of my covers so that I don't mess up my rack
  • I'm tired of having to sign TAPS before bed
  • I'm tired of climbing up into my rack to sleep instead of having a bed on the ground
  • I'm tired of not having the freedom to go where I want when I want
  • I'm tired of calling upperclass Mr./Ms. _______
  • I'm tired of getting millions of emails every day
  • I'm tired of procrastinating (this one's also on me)
  • I'm tired of never having clean NWUs because we often use them for workouts, beatdowns, and SMTs
  • I'm tired of plebing my cover
Now on to things that I enjoy about this place. Maybe this will help give me some perspective:
  • I love walking down Stribling to and from class
  • I love the people, most of the time
  • I love having amazing professors
  • I love/hate Forrestals.
  • I love hitting my rack tired
  • I love working hard with other mids
  • I love Navy football even though we are not good at all
  • I love Annapolis
  • I love saluting officers that I know and respect
  • I love being complimented on how shiny my shoes are
  • I love wearing the uniform
  • I love the sunrise by the Farragut seawall when running early in the morning
  • I love the sunset outside my window
  • I love the blossoming trees and the green of Spring on the Yard
  • I love MOs
  • I love responding to Gunny at parade practice IYKYK
  • I love all of the broken stones on red beach
  • I love having a schedule
  • I love doing cool things
  • I love weekends
  • I love rain
  • I love the sun
  • I love the smell of King Hall on the weekend
  • I love Army/Navy week
  • I love Air Force/Navy week
  • I love getting Shipmate emails
  • I love receiving goofy brigade-wide emails
  • I love getting up early to go put in work
  • I love sleep-ins
  • I love drinking cold water after getting beat on Hospital Point
  • I love getting honked at when running off the Yard with the rest of the plebes for an SMT
  • I love jumping off of the 10-meter
  • I love Summer Whites (except when eating)
  • I love shenanigans
  • I love making someone's day
  • I love beating Army
  • I love the cold breeze through my windows
  • I love having potential for an awesome career
  • I love being with my friends
  • I love watching people fall asleep in class (and doing it myself on occasion)
  • I love messing with upperclass (professionally of course)
  • I love walking through Dahlgren Hall
  • I love finding the perfect route to my room with minimal chopping
  • I love smoking and joking
  • I love being told that lunch will be provided at something and then receiving MREs
  • I love Ledo pizza, however terrible and greasy
  • I love getting mail
  • I love doing things that matter
  • I love running outers
  • I love bridge runs
  • I love days with no homework
This was honestly quite therapeutic and in the process of writing, I realized that there are a lot more things that I love about this place than things that I dislike. I still don't know where I'm headed right now and some perspective would be nice, but just writing this is helping me stay optimistic to some degree. The saying that the Academy is not a great place to be at, but it is a great place to be from is ringing true right now. At the end of the day, most of the things that are getting on my nerves stem from being a plebe and they are soon to end. I just need to maintain as much of a positive outlook on this as I can for the next month. I am certain that there are quite a few things that I missed on either side, but I'm just going to post this for the sake of time. I do have homework after all. We're almost there.

The Days:

13 Days til Finals (Less than two weeks!)
27 Days til Herndon
30 Days til Ring Dance
36 Days til Graduation

P.S. PLEASE turn on the AC ASAP. We're dying here. Not even the mice want to live in here right now.
 
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I love this so much.

Go through the “I’m tired” list, and cross out the ones that will disappear in 27 days 😬

Summer will be a breath of fresh air. Food for your soul. It’s almost here.

And guess what? You are almost 25pct DONE with your 4 yrs. That’s not insignificant.

And have you heard that your time at USNA is divided into thirds? 1/3 plebe summer, 1/3 plebe year, and 1/3 the rest. It’s true. You are on the verge of the toughest 2/3’rds.

Hang in there. Finish strong. Better days are right around the corner.
 
This brought Plebe Year back to me. All of this is very normal. Embrace the summer training and enjoy 3/C year. Much of what you write, will go away or shift. Some will always be there. Some will continue in the fleet. Heck some of that is still there as a civilian far removed from USNA. USNA is what you make of it. I think many don’t find ‘their people’ or place until later at USNA. The summer you will meet others and get to know more classmates than your company mates. I hope the summer is a great experience for you and 3/C year treats you well. I loved being a youngster. No longer a Plebe, but not a ton of responsibility. More than anything, you own much more of your own time. You will watch some classmates who develop terrible time management with that freedom, don’t do it. It’s a slippery slope. Congrats on almost no more plebe and best of luck.

Class of 28… read this. Plebe Year is much more than Plebe Summer. It’s a grind. It’s not all shiny.
 
Very insightful read, thank you OP! I’m a bit scared for plebe year due to some of the things you mentioned but I’m also really excited to grind it out with my fellow plebes. I think I’m the most excited about the people. Right now things are pretty rough for me, I feel like I only have a few more weekends left as a free high school senior but I’m just wasting them being alone in my room. I’m excited for a fresh start, to make new friends and meet new people, to suffer and celebrate alongside my fellow plebes, to get into shenanigans in DTA, the Yard, or Bancroft, to make memories for a life time :)
 
smokey% said:
Very insightful read, thank you OP! I’m a bit scared for plebe year due to some of the things you mentioned but I’m also really excited to grind it out with my fellow plebes. I think I’m the most excited about the people. Right now things are pretty rough for me, I feel like I only have a few more weekends left as a free high school senior but I’m just wasting them being alone in my room. I’m excited for a fresh start, to make new friends and meet new people, to suffer and celebrate alongside my fellow plebes, to get into shenanigans in DTA, the Yard, or Bancroft, to make memories for a life time :)
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Run.

No actually like right now go run.

You're almost there too. Good luck!
 
“I'm tired of getting millions of emails every day”

I had to LOL at this. May your career be successful enough where you have the pleasure of ignoring them for hours and then watching the “issue” get solved in the 500,000 replies. All cc’ed of course.
 
Here's the crazy part, which I've learned from folks I know who graduated from USNA and USMA and USAFA: All those things you're tired of now? Those are the same things that you'll look back on years from now with great pride and satisfaction and nostalgia. You'll wear them like a badge of honor. SA grads are celebrated and admired because they survived -- even thrived -- amid all those things that they were so, so tired of. And that, strangely enough, is the point. At least that's what my alumni friends tell me: A terrible place to be, but a wonderful place to be from.
 
I love the honesty of your post. The good the bad and the ugly.
That is the reality of life at USNA at least for plebe year if not beyond.

Mine had the ‘Extra’ experience of Covid and lockdown and iso and quarantine. A whole new level of suck and lack of controls.

They survived. And to be honest I think they will be better served moving forward. More prepared for the unknowns and life in the fleet when $h*t hits the fan. They have done hard things. Things out of their control. To say the least. They are resilient as are all who have faced adversity.

You know you are chasing your dream and fulfilling your destiny when you endure things you never thought you would or could.

Your honest list is awesome. A plus and minus side of your real experience.

Seems like the balance falls on the positive in my mind.
 
The OP captures why mids sometimes seem "burned out." What seems so "shiny and new" when you first arrive begins to drain on you. As NavyHoops said, much of it does get better; some never changes.

Being a youngster is great. You've been out in the fleet and seen the "real" Navy and Marine Corps. You don't have all of the plebe stuff but also don't yet have responsibilities of 2/c and 1/C. You start taking classes in your major. You get more liberty (albeit still with SDBs -- in our day, we had to wear them on liberty until 1/c year). You'll be "equals" with the other upperclass and start to make friends in other classes. You have more control over your day and your life.

It IS a grind. I'd love to tell you that it all gets better once you graduate, but it doesn't. It does get better but it doesn't ALL get better. Some people think it's all better in the civilian world. It's not. Some things are better, some are not.

Glad you're sticking with it! And it's ok (healthy) to vent. You're already mature enough to realize there are things that will change and things that won't. Embrace the good; accept the bad.

Enjoy Herndon and have a great summer!
 
@ARandomMid

Hey, I'm a plebe too right now. I just wanted to reach out and say that you are not alone, and feel free to reach out if you ever need someone to vent to.

This week was SO long for me. There were some really great, exciting things too. But it was rough. And I am exhausted.

I can't wait to be out of Bancroft and out of a classroom for a while. I'm definitely looking forward to the summer, for so many reasons.

Thanks for the post. I agree with pretty much all of it and I'm thinking I should make my own list too...

(9 days left of school!)
 
Remember why you wanted to go there. Do you still want to be an officer of Marines or Sailors?

There's a reason officers get paid more including BAH while not married and get called sir or ma'am.

Be proud that you will be living proof that officers didn't have it easier getting to where they are.
 
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I think these two quotes from Robert Frost might be appropriate here considering the confidence and trust we are placing on each and every Midshipmen here on the Yard … and after they commission and leave the Yard:

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”

“Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.”
.
 
nmabq said:
“I'm tired of getting millions of emails every day”

I had to LOL at this. May your career be successful enough where you have the pleasure of ignoring them for hours and then watching the “issue” get solved in the 500,000 replies. All cc’ed of course.
Click to expand...
Spend 30 minutes working with "create a rule" and folders in outlook. GAME CHANGER! Most of the email that drives me nuts is FYI types, they are now automatically in appropriate folders (never hit inbox) and I review when I have time. Keeps important stuff on top.
 
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