Graduated & Home for the Holidays

WOW!! It has been a while since I last wrote. I had everything about caught up and ready to post when somehow (still not sure how) I lost the entire post and am now having to start all over. Well hopefully the second try will end in a better blog update.

So, yes, I am now officially graduated as an officer of the United States Coast Guard. I can officially ask for military discounts with a card to back me up...grin...don't ask! I have to say that the last 17 weeks has been quite an adventure that is only the start of an even greater adventure. I will start with saying that since graduation I have been processing all the input from the past 17 weeks. While in OCS, we get a lot of information, work, stress, etc...with really no time to process it. Some of it soaks in, some of it we lose, and still more of it is still waiting for my brain to process and store. Smile... I realize that's putting it all in almost computerized terms, but it's the truth of the matter.. There have been moments since graduation of wondering what in the world I'm doing, what in the world did I just finish doing, and just feeling completely lost. Those moments don't last for long, as the Lord is a constant reassurance in my life. Before delving into the story of the last few weeks, I will say that I still know that I'm in the will of the Lord for my life and am continually seeing His amazing blessings in my life as He opens doors and closes others. PTL!!! I really appreciate all your prayers over the last several months, as well as encouraging letters and packages while I was in OCS. You are all a blessing to me. Now for the story...
I understand that I may have left some people hanging in regard to my future immediately following OCS, so I would like to quickly clear that up before sharing the details of the graduation. I believe that I mentioned the fact that I was told that I was medically disqualified from flying for the USCG. Well, I have been told by numerous individuals in the CG not to take "no" for an answer, but to keep trying for what I want. One individual went so far as to tell me that I might even have to "stand on their desks until you get it." Smile... Well, I didn't go that far but here's the rest of the story. One day not long after hearing that I was disqualified for flight school, I had just completed my 2nd swim test and was talking with one of the instructing officers at OCS. He was one that was in charge of my particular group and therefore kept tabs on myself and 30 others. My conversation with him consisted of him inadvertantly encouraging me to do whatever I had to in order to have the medical record corrected so that I would be able to get into flight school in the future. He informed me he couldn't tell me how or what to do and wasn't even telling me to do anything....but....and that's what got me on the ball. A short time later, I marched myself from the gym to the medical clinic and requested a re-measurement of my arms since I had been informed that my arms were too short. Upon being re-measured a couple of times that day, it was discovered that there was a 2 inch discrepancy and I was indeed qualified to be a CG aviator. With this discovery, they proceeded to redo all of my measurements that day to confirm that no discrepancy had been made in any of the others previously taken. The assistants in the medical clinic wrote all this information on the appropriate form, which I had them sign and date. They then faxed it to the appropriate physician in Florida who is over the aviation department. I took the original and with the help of a good friend I drew of up a letter requesting the re-evaluation of my previous application. Before the end of the day, I had that letter, the new measurements, and the old application letter in a folder on my officer's desk to be read first thing the next morning. By 11am the next day I was called into yet another office where I had originally received the news of disqualification. This officer had already been in contact with Headquarters and medical and wanted to know what was going on. He told me he would do what he could, but it was just a matter of waiting. The least that would happen is my record would be cleared for future re-application to flight school, but the chance was fairly good that I would be sent to flight school as originally planned before the measurement error was discovered. To make a long story shorter, I was called into the Commanding Officer's (CO) officer 3 weeks later. The CO along with 3 other officers informed me that he had bad news, "I need your hat back.....because...I have a new hat for you." Grin... In the CG-OCS they give us ball caps with the name of the station that we will be going to on the front of it. So, my previous ballcap said I was headed to South Carolina to a ship, but the new said I was headed to flight school. I had been officially accepted into the USCG Flight School in Pensacola, FL!!! The CO proceeded to apologize to me on behalf of the entire USCG for the mistake, which I was a little overwhelmed by, and then all congratulated me. You can all imagine that I had a grin on my face from ear to ear and there was no hiding the pleasure and excitement of knowing I was now headed to where I belonged. That same day, the detailer (an individual who is responsible for all the transfers, postings, etc for a particular department of the USCG) for aviation came from Headquarters and requested to speak with me. During this time she also profusely apologized for the mess-up followed by her expectations of my future success. WOW!! Talk about blown away. God has some amazing ways of getting me where He wants me. Smile... so, now I am headed to flight school with many important people watching my progress from headquarters, OCS, etc... So, PLEASE KEEP PRAYING FOR ME!! Grin... I'll continue to need your prayers now as much as ever. Flight school will be one of the most challenging things yet I believe. I am very excited and more than a little nervous as I step out into yet another of life's adventures. The Lord is amazing and I know He is with me and I am going with Him wherever He leads.

So that catches you up on that story...there's more I could add there, but I'll save it for later where it fits into the story timeline...

Dec.1st:

Back from Thanskgiving Break, we pretty much only had 3 days before graduation. We spent those days in Drill practice, graduation practice, packing, and lots of last minute details to make sure each of us was ready to leave on the 3rd of December and head to our new homes. Drill practice pretty much consisted of either standing or marching around with 9 1/2lb rifles. Not my favorite thing in the world, but when you are with my group we do our best to make everything interesting. Smile... This day we had the full competition rehearsal for our final drill competition which was to be followed by an awards ceremony. Standing for over an hour was a challenge as I hadn't been feeling the greatest over the last few weeks, and came the closest to passing out that I had ever come in my entire life. I have never had my vision begin to go white while at the same time feeling weak all over and nauseous. I was more than a little worried because the next day was the actual competition and ceremony where we would perform in front of an audience of friends and family. Tomorrow would be longer than even our practice because they would actually hand out all the awards and read the citations that went with each. So with much prayer for the following day, the day progressed. Monday was a success and upon finishing up with all the day's activities, a group of us decided that going out for dinner sounded like a grand idea. Turns out, class that I was a part of consisted of 84 (originally 95) students that had been divided into 3 groups. My group was called the "party platoon" and was a rather tight-knit, fun group. So, before the night was over quite a few from my group had at least dropped in to the restaurant to say hi or whatever and introduce their wife or significant others. So it was a nice last dinner together before all the graduation stuff began and families arrived in mass.
Dec.2nd:

Began with practicing out in the cold for an hour or so. The weather was beautiful for the few days leading up to and including graduation day, but they were COLD...like 30 degrees cold. Smile...so standing outside for long periods of time was "COLD"! Smile... Anyway, at 10AM the competition began. I sang to myself to keep me entertained and keep my mind busy as I watched the goings on while I stood alternately at the position of attention or at a resting position with my rifle leaned out in front of me. Praise the Lord...I did not pass out nor come close to passing out. Honestly, that was an answer to prayer because the last thing I wanted to do was pass out. Immediately following the competition I was given about an hour to see my parents who had driven all the way from MO to be present at my graduation. It was great to see them after 4 months. I am honored to have parents who are so supportive of what I am doing. I'm not sure what I'd do without their support. The rest of the afternoon involved a final graduation practice and a few more final details before the evening's formal dinner & dance.

At about 5:40pm I met my parents and we proceeded to the Marriott hotel where a very formal dinner and dance were held in honor of those graduating. It was quite lovely and I enjoyed introducing my wonderful parents to various friends, acquaintances, officers, etc... I felt a bit out of my element strangely enough in that formal military ball. Normally, I have gone to formal events dressed in a formal dress and feeling like a girl...that wasn't the case this night when I was required to wear uniform. Other than not being able to dress up for the occasion, I am still learning the military life and didn't want to do something wrong... Though I have been through 17 weeks of training, there is still much for me to learn. At one point in the evening, I turned from where my parents were visiting with someone to have another gentleman begin conversing with me. He wanted to know about where I was from and going, etc...just carrying on conversation. I knew he was someone of importance but failed to realize who until he finally introduced himself by his first and last name...then I realized that I was speaking with the guest of honor, Admiral Neffenger. Grin...like I said, I'm still learning since I should have known immediately that he was an Admiral. I thankfully didn't do or say anything that could incriminate me but had a nice conversation. Grin... Even introduced my parents who had soon ended their conversation and joined mine. Smile... The evening ended well with us learning some dance moves from foreign students hailing from Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago. Good times...

Dec. 3rd:

A little sleep later, I woke up to graduation day. How exciting!! The morning began with an Honors Ceremony for the Guest of Honor. Since he was a newly appointed Admiral, this was his first Honors ceremony in which case he was presented with his own flag and a bullet shell (not sure of the significance of the bullet shell...sure one of you guys could fill me in...grin). The honors ceremony consisted of an 11 gunshot salute, a couple songs played by the Navy band (CG band was out of country for the week), and various other small elements. It's a rather short ceremony, but since it was held outdoors at 9:15AM, our hands were frozen into tight fists at our sides. Smile...

Immediately upon conclusion of this ceremony, we marched back to the barracks to change a few things on our uniforms for the graduation ceremony. We had to change jackets and a few insignia to signify our being officers upon completion of the ceremony. Never will we again wear the previous uniforms and insignia unless we are in some skit or something. While we were completing this quick change of uniform and reforming up into marching order, the family and friends were being shown a 20 minute video giving an overview of the last 17 weeks of our lives. A couple of the students were assigned the job of video taping our various events and compiling a class video. They did an excellent job and each of us now have a copy to remember our life at OCS. Smile... Finally, all dressed out and ready to go, we marched down to the graduation hall where we met our friends and family and enjoyed a nice reception before the graduation. A little strange maybe, but the graduation was scheduled through lunch, so it was excellent for tiding our appetites through the afternoon. The graduation proceeded without a hitch and I was soon walking across the stage to receive my commission as an officer of the United States Coast Guard. Woohoo!! I walked and I got it!! It is still amazing to think about it. I can hardly believe it sometimes. WoW!!

Immediately following graduation I hurried back to the barracks to load my stuff into Mom and Dad's car, then they left for the hotel while I had to stick around and do some more cleaning in the barracks. Each of us was assigned an area of the barracks in addition to our individual rooms that we had to have cleaned before we were allowed to leave for good. It was fun times cleaning up, seeing everyone and their families, and then finally getting out of there. I took my parents to visit the ship that I had sailed on in the Carribean for two weeks. I got to give them the tour inside and out giving them a peak into my life and experiences on the ship. Good times. Enjoying an early dinner and running into quite a few friends, I was exhausted upon reaching the hotel and asleep by 8:15pm. Smile...
Dec 4th:

On the road to Maine to visit family, we spent the next 3 days in Brunswick, ME enjoying the little towns, the coast, and visiting a lighthouse. It was a relaxing time. I've wanted to go to Maine for quite some time and was quite excited to have the opportunity this time. It is beautiful there. From Maine, we drove 28 hours over 2 1/2 days back to the MO, through at least 9 states. I have decided that Pennsylvania was one of my favorite going through the mountains, even the snow that we ran into. It was good to get home though and I have spent my time here sleeping, trying to keep in shape (that can be a challenge around Christmas time), and going through all my stuff packing and repacking in preparation for moving to Florida the first of January.
Life goes on:

The Lord has continued to provide my needs and bless me amazingly. Since I sold my vehicle before leaving for OCS, I have been looking for one to carry all my stuff to Florida. The Lord provided exactly what I was wanting and looking for. I am getting a 2003 4-door black Toyota Tacoma!! PTL!!! In addition to that, my Mother has been amazing helping me find things necessary to set up house down in FL. I'm VERY excited to be moving to FL to my own place for the first time in my life. It will be nice to be alone a bit and have some peace and quiet after 17 weeks in a community living arrangement surrounded by people 24/7. So, that pretty much gets you all up to date. Sure there are more details here and there, but many of those are in the forms of stories that make up each day of my life. Life is an adventure and lately it was compared to a novel. Please feel free to write me a comment on this blog or shoot me an email if I forget to complete a story and leave the "novel" hanging mid-story for too long. Either way I will check my email and get notification of a need to update. Thank you all once again for all your prayer support, letters, packages, and friendship. It is a blessing to know that people are praying for me. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and I know that this next phase of life, flight school, is going to be a challenge. Merry Christmas to you all and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!