Another day

Well I'm two days in going on to my third. Today, (second day) was a morning filled will drill instructions. How to march in formation, how to turn, how to do all that stuff. For me, a really easy morning since showchoir pretty much made my feet know how to do right. haha. Strange thing about drill this morning. We were expecting some guy to just yell and scream at us, but we were met by a neat surprise. Our drill instructor was a recent graduate of the program here and has only been out in the "world" for a few months. She, yes she, was also very pretty. She told us, "I know you think I'm just a cheerleader, but I've worked very hard to earn my place here among the force." So I respect her for that. I did laugh at her when she came around inspecting our salutes, because she couldn't see mine and said, "You're too tall" and moved on. HAHA she got owned. I was doing it right though. Also while doing the turns and different cadence calls, so told me I could stand aside because I had it down. I think 8 hour days of dancing dance steps finally paid off!

After lunch, the positions of Sergeant and Corporal were given out to the two students who showed the most leadership and discipline. My roommate Shawn was awarded Corporal, which he wasn't happy about. He's been through 4 camps now like this and he didn't want any responsibility. Being the roommate though, it will only make me better as well. While drilling, he and another Marine were helping everyone and the instructors saw this as leadership, when he was only doing what he could do to help. He wasn't trying to show off or stand out. So I feel bad that he has to do it. The other guy got the rank of Sergeant. His name is Robert and he's alright, really nice, but really "Marine". So kinda a d-bag.

 The afternoon was filled with lecture. Today's main lesson was History and Mission of the NPS (National Park Service). This was very boring. Sitting through 6 hours of it I was so ready to just fall asleep, it was torture.

Tomorrow we have our first PEB or Physical  Efficiency Battery. As a 21 year old I must score in the 25 percentile of my peers. Basically it's a 1.5 mile run, an agility run, pushups, benchpress, and a stretch test. I timed myself in the 1.5 mile run in Manhattan last month and if I can keep that pace I will be in the 92-93 percentile, which is pretty good I think. I also have to benchpress a percentage of my body weight, and since I weigh about 210 pounds, and can benchpress at least 210 pounds, I think I'll be ok since it will be just a percentage of that. Pushups I got down and stretch and agility we will just have to wait and see. My ankle is still really bad and I'm not sure how the agility will affect that. I'll just have to take it easy.

Trying to fall asleep and pay attention is that hardest thing for me right now. Although I'm tired, even now, I still have so many thoughts running through my brain that it's hard for me to focus on just sleeping. I've been watching things on Netflix just to "distract" my thoughts. It's working so far, but I"m going to be later than I'd like. During class, especially today, my brain was all over the place. I took good notes and followed along well, but it was a constant struggle to keep on task. Just too many things are happening all at once in my life right now and it's kind of starting to show in my brain. It's a mixture of knowing what I want, and confusion all at the same time. Very mentally draining, which is partly why I'm so tired all the time. Luckily I don't have any time to just sit and think. I basically got up at 6:30am and have been working on things from then till about 10:00pm.  That's a  long day if you can add up the hours.

I'm really looking forward to a day off to just collect and catch up on some needed rest. Sadly that day isn't for another week. I'm doing my best to stay off the radar. Not that I'm not trying here, but I'm doing enough to not get noticed, but also not doing too much, and getting noticed. I think as long as I do what I'm told, and do it well, and don't complain ever, I'll be just fine. The days are already starting to blend together, and it feels like just one big day so far which is good and bad I guess. It's going by fast I think, and am so excited to be home already.

There is a girl in class that was talking about going skiing, so I'll have to see where she's going and try and tag along, I fear I won't get to do that as much as I wanted to. :(

-Zach