Positivity
5-Year Member
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2012
- Messages
- 127
I cannot express any opinion on whether you should go or not. But I have met many of the class of 2017 this past year, and ALL I met, including my kid, had lots of buyers remorse the 4 weeks and up until the morning of R-Day.....and then it got worse! -; By two weeks in, it wasnt worth quitting over (well, it was for 10 or 20 kids), but it definitely sucked, but by A Day, 'it wasn't so bad'. Then it just got better and better. He loved the first year, and like most of them, is really excited to be an Officer, already looking past being a Cadet. He is right now palling around with those who are already his closest friends in Manhatten, with two shiney silver dollars given to him by Firsty sports team mates who honored him by asking him to give them their Commissioned first salute at pin on yesterday. It was also kind of cool to have the President stop by yesterday -;, recognizing the importance of this elite group of 4200 very young people. Buyers remorse in the weeks leading up to R day is common, if not universal. After the first year, I see a ton of pride. As was said in "Absolutely American", West Point Cadets are 'Grand, Epic, Complainers, and probably the happiest college students in America.' That has been my observation as well.
Now to the 7 figure annual aspirations. Hmmm. I got there (no where close in my 20's though). My dad (A grad) always told me money is made by being extraordinarily good at what you do, and that takes love, and the ability to get other people to embrace and accelerate your vision. In fact, and he was very successful, he said 'The World is becoming so highly technical and specialized, that the real value is from becoming a translator among specialists. That is what I learned to be at West Point".
The economy has seriously changed. There are no 20 something fast track programs for BA's at Xerox, or GE or Merrill Lynch, like there were a generation ago. You can do CS or Chemistry or Double E, and make $100k in your early 20's, (and $150k at 50) but other than that, its more likely than not you will be living at home in your 20's doing unpaid internships, trying to have a resume that interests someone. At that same time, the USMA grad is going to have serious responsibility for over 100 people. The civilian world has very little use for 20 somethings today unless you can code or do chemistry. The military assigns much greater responsibility to its Officers, and the commercial world highly values that. Private careers dont really start now until you are in your 30's, at least the ones you aspire to. Being a Captain entering the commercial world at 27 is far more interesting to an employer than having been at 4 internships and finally getting to run a 2 or 3 man marketing team at 26.
Just my two cents.
Your input is greatly appreciated and resonated with me a lot. Although, I plan to be self-employed so impressing an employer is irrelevant. Thanks!