Mom who wrote "Roller coaster ride"

Hi all, looking for a mom who wrote a great piece on the Roller coaster ride of being a service academy parent. This mom has a kid (aka kid#1) at USNA and a kid ( aka kid#2) at USCGA. It is a great little post or article that really captures the life of a mom and, well to be honest, her computer!
I have so been there. My family has come to hate my iPad with good reason. I just wanted to find her to say thanks and it is nice when I realize someone else gets me. she mentions SAF in the piece so I know I have read her work here somewhere.

Lynpar said:

Hi all, looking for a mom who wrote a great piece on the Roller coaster ride of being a service academy parent. This mom has a kid (aka kid#1) at USNA and a kid ( aka kid#2) at USCGA. It is a great little post or article that really captures the life of a mom and, well to be honest, her computer!
I have so been there. My family has come to hate my iPad with good reason. I just wanted to find her to say thanks and it is nice when I realize someone else gets me. she mentions SAF in the piece so I know I have read her work here somewhere.

Click to expand...

I know her, I will forward your message to her.

I would love to read that also!

You can read it here:

The Rollercoaster Ride of Academy Parents

That's good! I can see our family in the early stages of this. We are at the kid #1 appointed as USCGA Scholar and kid #2 highly motivated by what he see's his older brother doing and getting straight A's and loading up on EC's.

Mom who wrote....

Just awesome. You brought them up the right way. They are true leaders in this the greatest country in the world, The United States of America. Tell them, thanks for their service.

God Bless and God Speed to your DD and DS and family,

RGK

Roller coaster ride

So true! all of it! We are at kid #2 accepted to USCGA Scholars recently. So much harder to get into now. #2 has a better resume than #1 who went directly into the Academy and graduated in 2010. #2 admired his brother the whole way! Second "roller coaster" here we come!

So glad!!

Lynpar said:

Hi all, looking for a mom who wrote a great piece on the Roller coaster ride of being a service academy parent. This mom has a kid (aka kid#1) at USNA and a kid ( aka kid#2) at USCGA. It is a great little post or article that really captures the life of a mom and, well to be honest, her computer!
I have so been there. My family has come to hate my iPad with good reason. I just wanted to find her to say thanks and it is nice when I realize someone else gets me. she mentions SAF in the piece so I know I have read her work here somewhere.

Click to expand...

Hi! That would be me . So glad it hit home. I have been ready to heave on that coaster a few times. You are sweet to look for me!! Congratulations on your "kids"!!!!

Rollercoaster Ride

Dear Mom1315,

I want to thank you for the great piece on the rollercoaster ride. I remember reading it in the summer/fall of '11. It really was comforting to our family to learn that we weren't the only ones on the coaster. 'We' survived swab summer with alot of support from the Parents Association/Paul Duddy and this forum... and now we are waiting to hear from our DS as to where he will be posted this summer. Thanks again

Go Bears.......Sculler Dad

Haha, nicely done. That parent's roller coaster ride certainly mirrors (or more likely compliments) the roller coaster ride of a swab and then a cadet.


For my parents, I would imagine my first letter or maybe to were "I think I'm doing well, it's hard but I'm doing it" which deteriorated into "I hate it here, I get yelled at all the time... etc etc etc" for at least the next 6 weeks.

And then for a year or two it would bounce from "things are good" to "I hate my life".

After those first two years, it got much better, for me. And I would imagine the
"hate my life" phone calls decreased. Suddenly Gold Star Bridge and that blinking chapel steeple does look quite so bad. I eventually looked forward to seeing my friends, even if that meant it was at CGA. Doesn't mean I didn't like going home. I just didn't feel as sick returning to CGA after flying into PVD.

And then at some point, you miss SOME of it. Not all of it. Not even a majority of it. But there's something about being in the same building with your friends that's enjoyable. Something about having a sport to play each semester, or golf class... little things that you enjoy. It takes a pretty good amount of time to get past the "I hate it here" feelings to the "I can stand it" and even longer to get past that sick "going back to CGA" feeling after Christmas break or summer leave.

I can say, looking back to 2002 when my parents drove me through the front gates of CGA, and my mini-hell began to 2006 when I walked across the stage to receive two documents on a nice sunny afternoon in May and a month later reported to my ship to 2011 when I left CGHQ for the last time as a uniformed member of the Coast Guard... and now through the eyes of a Coast Guard veteran... I would do all of that, all over again, in a second.

Awesome

I can so relate to this story. I too am a mother of two Academy kids with a third son in the application process..you would think that round three would be easier but its actually a little tougher because he wants this just as much as the first two and I fear that if he doesn't get into one of the Academies that it will crush him. He has worked really hard the last four years and I am praying that he achieve his dream just like his brother and sister...

Summer Applications are in and now we wait and I stalk lol!!!

Realiy?

LITS, you really made me snort! I thought the dips in the roller coaster were more like : the food sucks, nothing to do that is normal, it is freaking cold, etc. What I didn't expect in March was a sudden " I hate this place, what was I thinking, this is NOT what admissions said, I won't be able to find a job, I should just get a liberal arts degree, the other academies think we are a joke nobody respects us, I want to go to a prestigious school, and yeah the food sucks" blah, blah, blah! I went to pieces! I should mention DS is at KP. No jokes alright? Especially you Bears! DS may still end up a Coastie. Anyway after DS's little dip in the coaster I was running wild here on the other end flying around like I was the tail of the whip and he was the handle. I really did want to throw up! Within a day or so after a couple of these messages I would run across a smiling ( real smile) photo or video of him actually having a blast. It seems in between times of being miserable things look pretty good! Prior to KP ( and hopefully after) DS was very even keel, never getting too excited one way or the other about anything ( unlike moi ) you know, mature! What a ride! And I know you all can relate. I read many posts similar to mine but when it happens I wonder why "nobody told me this" lol.

I really enjoyed the reading the Rollercoaster ride of Academy Parents. It made me think I am thankful only one of our twins decided to go to a service academy. It has been worth the ride though!

Thank you for the "Roller Coaster" Insight Mom1315

I want to say "thank you" for the great synopsis of the "Roller Coaster" ride. In 9th grade our daughter (now a junior) met a Ret. LtCol from the USAF at the Police Department where my husband is a Detective. Before dinner that night my husband took me aside and said 'stay calm... "K" has an announcement and you need to stay calm'...I held my breath until we all sat down- she boldly stated "I want to go to an Academy for Engineering". I was so proud... nauseated... but proud (a phenomenon I think only a parent can understand). She's an excellent student with an amazing work ethic; we've often told people she tricked us into having a second child because it was so "easy" ("Kid #2" is now a freshman in HS and is equally amazing but it took a little longer for her to, shall we say, "realize her potential", so... needless to say... there is no "Kid #3").

"Kid #1" (while coming to grips with the fact that she really isn't going to get taller and is at peace with her 5' tall 105 pound self) has maintained that dream. She has worked diligently as a student (leaving us in the dust about the time she hit Trig), become a leader, a passionate philanthropist, a strong athlete and has now been accepted into the USAFA SS (attending Session A)...Yay! Of course this, coupled with the letter about being a 'competitive candidate for appointment' from her questionnaire, was my "a-ha" moment that this really is happening. After obsessing over what all of this means and reading at least a thousand threads about USAFA Summer Seminar and USCGA AIM, I stumbled upon the "Roller Coaster" post. I immediately printed it out, high-lighted the "where's Waldo/Computer/Forget the Food" passage and posted it on the fridge (so all could see as they reach in for left overs) as validation that I was not crazy.

Both my husband and I went to civilian Universities (to which she is also applying as her "Plan B"... we certainly understand the competitiveness of Academies). This whole process is... well... quite the ride. I find that I have become part Mom, part Healthcare Administrator (which helps pay for the electricity going to said fridge) and now, part Agent. I am using each of these gazillion application steps as a cathartic exercise in the fact that my "baby" wants to serve. (FYI- "Step 42a" was becoming part of a forum... gulp). We are also anxiously waiting to hear about whether she got accepted into the USCGA AIM Program, but won't know for another month.

So thank you, Mom1315, for such an insightful piece- it certainly helps to know that this is a ride with many, many, many other passengers! And for anyone who takes the time to post, please know that somewhere there is a newbie on "Baby Step 1" like me, reading them and finding comfort!

Hey all! Stand by for Rollercoaster Ride part Three coming soon to this thread. I keep sitting down to write it and get de-railed...but am currently in the line again...more later...

Nice...