Admissions Blog

Well here I am again! I have come back to the surface and out of hiding to grant all of you yet another cadet perspective. The piles of books have been pushed aside, the windows have been opened, and I’m ready to write to you. For those of you who have been waiting on me, I apologize, and to those of you who are new to this website, welcome! I’m Anastasia Cale, I’m a “yearling” at the United States Military Academy (yearling meaning sophomore at any other school). I am on the Army Crew Team and am a proud Crusader (my company mascot) in company C-1. My family just moved this summer from The Netherlands and my father is an Army officer. So needless to say I’ve either been busy keeping up with my school work load or dead tired from rowing two a days with my team or happily enjoying an extra pass and the ability to leave on the weekends. But I am here. First off all I’d like to give a shout out to the current plebe class – Class of 2013. It’s been marvelous walking down the hallway in Thayer, or at a football game and have a Fourth Class cadet come up to me and tell me they read my blogs before they were part of Cadet-land. And also to Cadets Ryan, Occhiuto, and Lee who all sit at my lunch table now and are Crusader-lings… it’s a small world. Academically things have been rough lately; my class has been pushing through a few consecutive Thayer weeks. But today was a breath of fresh air. I was flustered this morning coming from Persian (yes, I chose to take it as my language) because I had done unnecessary work on Rosetta Stone (as you can guess, time is a luxury here) the whole day before. My day turned for the better following my long walk to Lincoln Hall to turn in my Economics problem set which I had been working on for a week or so in the crisp fall air and deep blue sky. The leaves are changing colors, and frankly it just makes the already stunning Hudson valley even more beautiful. I thank God every morning while I sit in a boat and watch the sun rise and paint the river shades of orange and pink – it’s the perfect way to start a long day. Regardless, I turned in my paper and decided to make a pit stop at the book store. By this time, the hallways had cleared since class was about to begin. But I hear an instructor yell out of his room, “COME ON! YOU CAN MAKE IT! YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS!” and I hear the distinctive low-quarter sound pounding off of the marble floors. A plebe comes sprinting down the hallway while his teacher has his hand out of the door counting down on his fingers and yelling “THREE, TWO, ONE.” The cadet makes it through the doorway, high-fives his teacher, and his class bursts into applause. I smiled and laughed to no one specific. I have really begun to realize that life is all about the little things, and I am ok with that. The less miserable you are, the less miserable people around you are and it’s just a good thing. I am excited to help everyone interested in West Point out there on the internet, parents, grandparents, any one! My email is Anastasia.cale@usma.edu , so please do not hesitate to drop a line. My next blog will be about Camp Buckner and Airborne school, my two adventures this summer, so be looking forward to that.