MILES to GO || before I sleep

I think I miss JROTC. :P

Your result for The 'How Army Literate Are You?' Test...

The Army Brat / Veteran

You scored 83 points on Knowledge out of 110! Very Good!

Take The 'How Army Literate Are You?' Test at HelloQuizzy

Would you believe I did so well on that because of everything I remember from RO? Anything I got wrong was because it's NEW stuff (e.g. new dress uniforms, name of parachutes used by Airborne Troopers). *grin*

Also: TAKE MY QUIZ!

It's a bit old, but short and simple. I'm trying to make a more complex quiz now (actually it's one I've had in the works for a while), but I'm kind of flabbergasted by the HelloQuizzy/OkCupid Test making system. Anyone with experience in this area, care to drop me a line?

I'm in a better mood ^^

I like listening to dance/techo music, and that's just what I'm doing now. I have to leave for my sixth period soon, so I'll type ASAP-

Engrish.com-- it just gets funnier every time I visit. I have this notebook from Korea that I got in a mall here in CA. It has a parody of the Wonder Year's song "Stand by Me" and this weird quite-- "born free and life is worth living but only worth living if you're born free." There's also "Tennis Sky" who thinks it's a "funny sport". She likes "Beayutful flower." ^^;

Fontgarden.com-- This site has both great fonts and great quotes! One of those quotes made me think about RO-- this point I always make. There are two ways to be yelled at in ROTC-- by doing something the right way, or by achieving the right result. There's no compromise, no both, it's either or. You get yelled at for whatever you didn't do-- and the quote is "Teamwork means never having to take all the blame by yourself." Heh-- RO emphasizes teamwork and all that... so next time I have an assignment or whatever, I'll work with two other people to share the wonderful world of blame.

Oh yes, and I might not have to go back to ROTC this spring semester! My mom thinks it's stressing me out, and making my more important academic classes suffer. I don't know whether to be excited or not. So all I've got to say for now is-- eh.

Laugh.

It's a widely known misconception that to go to "boot camp" is to sign your soul away to a bunch of tall, crew cut guys with a mouth that would make your mama shame-faced. I just came back from "boot camp".
What, you say? You got sent to boot camp? Uhm, no, more like I volunteered. As anyone who's read my diary before, they know I'm in JROTC, also known as HSROTC. For the uninformed, the former stands for Junior Reserve Officer's Training Corps (or High School JROTC for the latter).

In any case, I hadn't gone last year, and all my friends came back ranting and raving that they had had so much fun. Mostly they went to dances, which I am so against, but I figured I'd have fun being my bitchy self at a place where power-tripping is the dress code standard. ^^;

So, I went this year. Unfortunately, there were some "cons" to going to this "boot camp". I'll start off my saying it wasn't really a boot camp, but that's what people think of it as. It's pretty similar, but I've heard stories from older classmates of mine who are really in the Reserves, so... this place is heaven in comparison.

Hehe.. in any case, you start the day by waking up at 4:30 AM. That's right, when it's still DARK. Mind you, this place is in Dublin, California. Unlike last year, when it was in some place near Anaheim. So the climates are very different, though I can easily say it rained in both places both years.

Dark, cold, wet. *shudder* I don't want to sound like a wimp, but I have asthma and am about as skinny as a pencil or thinner, so physical fitness isn't really up my alley. I can barely walk up three flights of stairs without heaving. I happen to have a high metabolism-- for me, that means eating in strange spurts, sometimes a lot, sometimes a little. I can burn the energy pretty fast, but I need to sleep ASAP or I faint. Exercising is only fun for me if I can pace myself. And that doesn't mean keeping PACE with everyone else. So trying to run with 70 people in the middle of the night when it's about 40 degrees outside is not my cup of tea. I figured that as a trainer, or someone who helped the cadets from the other schools learn about the place, I wouldn't have to do PT (physical training). BZZ! Wrong. It seems this year's brigade (citywide) staff was so disorganized, that the battalion (school) has power over everyone. This would be the one time I'd have a problem with that, because the teachers at my school for ROTC are, without a doubt, and with proof, sexist and uncaring towards medical problems. They don't care when people get hurt, have excuse notes from doctors or parents, or are about to pass out. I managed to get excused from PT every morning, but just barely, and not without escaping a yelling.

And that's just the beginning. After a half hour of PT, everyone returns to their barracks. I should state here that the male and female barracks are separated (duh) but, again, thanks to the wonderful lack of planning on the brigade staff's part, we weren't in the larger barracks. So many girls has to sleep on mattresses (and box springs... oww...) in a cold, dark room. The bathrooms are shared by the girls (all of them) and the brigade staff.

Now, normally, older teens can take care of themselves just fine, but these ones figured since there were 40+ girls in the lower barracks with them (the barracks are two stories) that they could get away with anything and everything. And that they did. They blamed us when a door in the bathroom showers broke, despite the fact that we are only allowed to use the bathrooms in the early morning and late afternoon. The door had been broken when no one was in the barracks. At least... not one of the girls!

Oh yes, and how fun it is to be sharing barracks with overblown egotistical guys, who reserve the bathrooms for themselves, even when girls have to use the toilet. The bathrooms, mind you, are separated: toilets, sinks, then showers. So anyone using the toilets wouldn't see anyone taking a shower.

And what's the big deal, anyway?! We've all taken Health Ed, and judging by their egos they wouldn't be very shy if someone DID walk in on them...!

I could keep on ranting... but the worst is yet to come. Now, brigade staff is made up of guys and girls from each of the six schools in the SFUSD. Mission, Lincoln, Wash, Bal, Gal, and Lowell. Our one representative was known as "Bubble Butt" to those who have a sense of humor. He wasn't mean or anything, but that year, I discovered that people in brigade forget that they have friends, significant others, integrity, or loyalty. They are a class and group in and of themselves. This "Bubble Butt" as he was, did not stay with the other boys from my school, but with Brigade. When his girlfriend got in trouble -for not being allowed to supervise over a cadet that had gotten injured- with another brigade member, who was,in fact, the brigade equivalent of her OWN position... he didn't stand up for her in the slightest. Despite the fact that JROTC and the brigade staff is supposed to be like the real army, and similar to the government itself, they follow one rule there: Guilty until proven Innocent. And we don't want to hear you defend yourself. They don't give anyone a chance to speak up in their own defense, yet blame them for everything. Oh yes, and they are TOTAL hypocrites. They say the girls at my school can't wear tank tops or short skirts, but they do it themselves. And they seem to hate our school, by singling us out for everything, including making us second to last for food. How horrible is it when you have to exercise at 4:30 in the morning, come back at 5:00, have a half hour to prepare, and then stand in line for an hour before you get your breakfast? And what's more, you're in line by rank, so the school with the most freshmen always gets to eat before us... and the same applies to our school, with a load of first year cadets. *sigh* At least I got to eat a bit longer. It wasn't the other people who had problems, it was really brigade.

This concludes my list of why I don't want to stay in RO, even if I *do* get a staff position. It isn't worth the stress... right?

I'm sure I could come up with a million reasons why school sucks. I know some people don't like it just because of work. But I'm cool with homework and projects. In fact, I like most of my classes. I'm not in honors for nothing. I have a great record when it comes to statewide or standardized tests, and even better with creative projects and visual and performing arts. I blame it on my astrology sign: Aries. ^_^
In any case, I have a very brief list of why I hate school, and wish that, if I could, I would take it online. (And yes folks, that IS possible.)

#1: Dirty. Maybe it's just my school, because it's in the city, but who wants to go to a school where there's always the smell of urine, turpentine, paint, bug spray, and rotten food? Our school is also home to several cats, one of which was believed dead last week. I don't know if there's any truth to it, but still, who wants to smell a dead anything?

#2: The People.. So sue me. No one can get along with everyone, but the people at my school seem to go OUT of their way to make others miserable. Suffice it to say, I don't want to be in the same BUILDING as them for another two years.

#3: The Teachers. Note I didn't put Teachers under People. That's because Teachers are really a category of their own. Quite unique people, teachers. Very easy at brainwashing, yet they are the picture of zombies that bend themselves. Our school, as well as the district it is within, has some ridiculous rules about everything... from food, off-campus privileges to how you get to school. Many of the teachers are old, grumpy people, living back in the 1880s, and others are unable to handle the pressure of being high school teachers. Out of all 7 of my classes, I like 4 classes, and maybe out of the 4, really respect 2 teachers. Respect, as far as I am concerned, is earned. So many teachers at my school yell, call students horrid names, or bash their heads against lockers. Okay, that's just one of my teachers, and he's a certifiable loony. I'm thinking about reporting him, but what good will it do me?

On this, I have this one teacher who looks and acts like a wrinkled old prune. I really really really hate her. I knew from the beginning that her class was difficult, but the woman has to diverge from what the rest of the school is doing. She yells at people for not having good topic sentences, and when you show essays done in her class and given 'C+' to AP teachers, they think the essay deserved at *least* a B+. I think it's ridiculous, because there's no curriculum to any of it. I mean, some people go to school to deal, others to see their friends, get away from home, 'have fun', whatever. I go to learn, most of the time, and this teacher nixes that. She takes away my stuff (a notebook) that I write in, but doesn't yell at the students that fall asleep, never do work, or don't have the required materials. ARGH!!

#4: ROTC. For those of you who don't know what it is, it means Reserve Officer's Training Corps. *Shudder.* I'd direct you to the website, but it's a poor excuse for anything on the web, and lord knows I don't want any more poor souls getting dragged in. I have nothing against the military, just the particular HSROTC/JROTC program at my school. The teachers, really. But again, these teachers are in a category of their own. See, in ROTC, it counts as gym credit. That's why so many people got dragged/sucked/voluntarily (brainwashed) went in. Myself included. It's supposed to teach you U.S. History, patriotism, and of course, fulfill the gym requirement by doing a whole lot of excess 'exercising' in spring.

What it ends up doing is undermining your self-esteem, demanding too many things from you, expecting you to act a certain way, and then repeating the process when you don't. You HAVE to learn CPR, Map Reading, U.S. History, and of course, military drill. It's worse for the advanced students, who have to 'motivate' students, and get bitched at (REALLY!) if they don't. Don't let me forget the uniforms, either. My school is the only school in the district that makes us wear it once a week. Other schools wear it as little as once a month, or even once a semester! (Two times on ONE school year!) We have harsh grading policies on everything, and even a merit-demerit system for the slightest things.

You DON'T want to get the glare from either of our sexist teachers. Yes, sexist. There isn't a single school in the district that teaches the program who is female. Thusly, girls ALWAYS have to wear skirts, and can't have slacks even though they have plenty. In addition, they get harsh explanations of why girls can't join Flag Team (formerly Boys Drill Team, but last year, there were girls quote-unquote on the team). But we could join the Girl's Drill Team if we wanted to (even though it's OFFICIALLY the Exhibition Drill Team), except that it's very taxing, and both the commanders are downright selfish.

I think I've ranted and raved long enough, don't you? I'd definitely like some feedback people, especially from anyone in this universe who might be in ROTC. Well, I'm off to read more here and at Fanfiction.net. Like anime? Check out my stories there under the name Azurite. Okay, peeps, I'm out! ^_^

Present Tense Note: Obviously, my opinions of ROTC changed over time, especially once I was out of the program. I doubt any entries I posted on FreeOpenDiary (where I''m pulling all these 2001 entries from) date forward enough to address the choice I had to make between ROTC and Journalism, and why the choice was actually tough. In retrospect, I really wish I *had* stuck with the program. But there are a lot of other things I've been through that have brought me to where I am, and I doubt the mindset I have now, accepting of the program and what it REALLY did for me and my development, could have been possible back then. The program most definitely had its weaknesses -and still does- but as it's being phased out, I see it as a moot point to further argue in its defense.