usmacadet2024
Member
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2020
- Messages
- 46
Enjoying it would be... an overstatement of my feelings on the experience. However, it probably wasn't the worst thing I've ever had to go through. Our (meaning the class of 2024) Beast experience was a little different - it was only 4 weeks long, and full of COVID mitigation measures, and all sorts of other stuff. That, in and of itself, made it a little interesting, and a lot of people thought that it would make it easier. It most certainly did not. Just to push past all of the differences between my Beast and previous classes (of which there were many, but none of the differences made our experience easier), it was still Beast. It was still hard; we still had to ruck all the time, we still had a field-training exercise, we still had to rappel, go in the gas chamber, conduct an ACFT, and do every other hard thing that was asked of us. For me, though, the worst part wasn't the physical stuff. It was the fact that we had less contact with our parents than even other classes before us had during their Beast. We got our mail keys a week and a half late, and that was a HUGE strain on a lot of new cadets, including myself. We didn't get the ice cream social, we didn't get the Fourth of July concert. We just got one 10 minute phone call, and letters. And that was really, really hard. However, Beast wasn't all gloom and doom - I had good days! I made great friends - friends that I can STILL rely on, three or four months later, who know me better than a lot of other people do. The trust that Beast can instill amongst teammates is so incredibly valuable. I also learned a lot about myself during Beast. I learned how to fail gracefully (which is to just own up to your mistakes, because you're going to make a lot of them, and to live in denial is just a pain). I learned that I was way, WAY stronger than I thought I was on numerous occasions (the one that comes to mind is intentionally breathing in tear gas, though). And I also did have some fun! I loved the medical training we received (I believe all cadets at West Point are certified Combat Life Savers after Beast), and some of the squad bonding activities we did were really fun. I think what made my experience more positive and negative were my cadre. They were INCREDIBLE. My squad leader was awesome - I learned a lot about what kind of squad leader I wanted to be from him - and our platoon sergeant and platoon leader were also incredible. Overall, they had the potential to make or break my Beast experience, and they really added to it instead of subtracted from it. And there's always one thing to remember at Beast - you just have to survive it! Just push through, don't think (just act!), and do what they ask! You don't have to be the best at everything, and that's OKAY! You will totally be fine, as long as you remember why you came to West Point and what your end goal is.What was your BEAST experience like? Did you enjoy it?
I hope that answers your question, and I'm sorry if it's all over the place - while Beast is still a lot fresher in my memory than some upperclassmen, it's still kind of hard to recall some of the finer details.