Im Back!

So sorry for all of you faithful followers. I have been off my game for a while. I would have you know that I am alive and doing well. More details on the summer will surface in the next few days. I we just got done building a waterfall so that is a story within itself .

20 And A Butt.... I Am At My Breaking Point

Social Skills. It is not something that you can see on paper, determine by a test, or really even hear over a 10 minute phone call. Unfortunately there are some people who look like super stars on paper because of grades or mile times but could not hold a conversation with someone for more then 5 minutes. Also being purely oblivious to this social handicap is just as pathetic.

 It has always boggled my mind to think that some just do not know how to interact with other or what is "socially acceptable". The old saying, "treat someone as you would want to be treated" doesn't seem like a crazy hard blueprint to follow. Yet still, my roommate decides to stay up till 1am after talking to his girlfriend for 2 hours and then wakes up at 5am on a Saturday to pack a ruck that goes at 6:30. Now I don't consider myself to be always the nicest guy in the room, but common sense told me when I did mine was to pack it the night before and make sure it is ready to go by the door so all I had to do was wake up, change, and silently walk out the door. But hey, I guess if I wasn't up since 5 in the morning I would have time to write this. The funniest part is after I stopped flopping around in bed and finally just got up, he started asking me to about the ruck and if he could use my PT belt for it; completely oblivious to the fact that someone else is the room was attempting to sleep.
 I honestly don't know if I could have made it any longer with him as a roommate. These next 20 days are going to really test my patients as a human and a Christian. If I do not suddenly snap and start cussing him out its only a testament of God's work. That my seem humorous but there is more truth to that statement then you think.


 I 

Not Him Again...

For those of you who read this blog often, (don't get ahead of my jokes here, that wasn't even suppose to be funny), there was a post that I wrote about addressing a kid named Lil Johnny who goes in at the very end of the game and tries to score with no success. After almost completing my second year of college I realized that Lil Johnny is not limited to just sports but also the classrooms.

 I have especially found this to be true in math and chemistry where group projects are often assigned. As the nominated idiot in class, I am often left in the corner, shunned by the smart nerdy kids. When a project is handed out all the smart kids scurry together in their groups and leaves all the dumb people alone. It reminds me of cockroaches when you flick on the light; one minute they are all taking derivatives and the next minute your the only one standing in the middle of the room scared and confused.


 The same goes for chem labs. We work in groups of three or four people with a prior sign-up list that everyone is required to fill out. I am often left as the last one to sign up so when i show up into a group the smart people always stop, look up, slump their shoulders like you just told them to babysit a two year old, and then proceed with working on the lab. I wish I could say I am joking that I have never had the same chem partners, but I'm not. I seriously wonder if they all take straws on who has to take me in their group.

For now I will let the nerds enjoy their little fantasy of bullying the jock in the classroom, but one of these days.... when they do decide to leave their room for something other then class..... BAAM!

Strength Team Tryouts

Yesterday was the final day of strength team tryouts. I knew very little about the team before a week ago but the more I hear about it the cooler it sounds. If you make the team then you are coached on technique and form by one of the head weightlifting coaches here and then are assigned to a Corps squad team to workout with them and teach them how to lift properly. It encompasses two of my favorite things; lifting and teaching others how to lift. I am not sure when we find out if we make it but hopefully soon.

 The workout was brutal. They first asked us to pretend like they had never lifted before on deadlift, snatch, and back squat, then told us to teach them through it. After about 4 minutes of that we moved on to 185lbs bench for as many times as you could. That was the worst part for me. I laid down, had a huge football player lift it off for me, and then proceeded to look like I giving birth trying to push it up once. Didn't even get it once. Oh well. Then we went on to 185 front squat which I got 13 or 14 times I think.

 After that we moved into a crossfit type workout, which was definitely to my advantage. we started with 2- 30sec kettle bell swings at 70lbs (32 reps), and then moved into a circuit of pushups, toes-to-bar (T2B),pushups, T2B, pullups, pullups. each were for 30 seconds. This is where I did better because I was able to crank out the pullups better then the guys who benched 185lb 15 times. After that we moved over to a 135lbs thruster station where we had 4 minutes or 30 thrusters, whichever came first. Again, this was good for me because I was used to the movements even though the weight was pretty heavy. Some of the bigger guys could have easily smoked me in it if they knew how to use the momentum but didn't look like it. I only got to 18* and say that because about 6 of them I didn't lock out at the top.  After that we moved into a treadmill run of 8speed and 8elevation for 30 secs, 9-and-9 for 30 secs, and 10-and-10 for as long as possible. By that point I was completely smoked and pretty light head from the thrusters to it was not pretty. made it about 32 secs at 10-and-10 before my calves started locking up.
 Finally there was a 50 meter lunge walk with a medicine ball on your shoulder. I thought it was a 10lbs or 12 lbs ball because thats the number that was on the side of it- turns out that they make them up to 120 lbs.......WHO KNEW?! That was pretty demoralizing to bend over and pick up a light ball, only to find your back thrown out if you do it wrong. It was bloody painful and exhausting. every 10 steps down you had to do 10 air squats so it required you to pick it up like 6 times. After you got to the 50 meter point you picked up and had to jog back with it before pushing a 145lbs sled the same distance and doing 10 burpees at the end.

It was brutal but a great gut check. One of those where you just get done and sit on the ground with no intentions of moving.   


(This is a little note I found when I got back to my room left by Hannah. She is a keeper)

Emergency = Naptime

Yesterday there was an active shooter drill that was set up by West Point. They literally shut down the entire post, called off school, brought in the SWAT team and had people from Keller hospital come in to act as if there were 2-5 shooters roaming around the West Point campus that had injured or killed a few people. Our only instructions were to go to your room, lock your door, turn off the lights and pull the shades..... and you are not allowed to leave your room for 3 hours. YES!! Sounds like a mandatory nap period for the entire Corps. Or at least that's what 3,000 tired cadets thought.

 
 My roommate was actually part of the drill. He and I both agreed that he would make an excellent physco spree killer. He also confessed (with a little prodding from my best friend here) that he would kill me first if he were to snap. We all nervously laughed along with him but that night I may or may not have slept with my Swiss Army Knife under my pillow.  On that note, seeing as it was just me in my room for three hours, I got to enjoy and appreciate some much needed silence that rarely seems to happen in this room. Only 30 days left until I am back in Michigan though