| After going to military school for those two years, I've somehow hardened up so much that NOTHING surprises me. Not even when a girl I was dating calls me up and said, "I really like you and am so glad I met you. And I love spending time with you, but I have something I feel I need to tell you.....I have a girlfriend." And that (to most people) would be a surprising thing. Nothing much surprises me anymore (not deaths in the family, not the news of my parents divorcing which was sprung up on me a few months ago, not my girlfriend wanting a "break", nothing). I can pretty much assimilate any type of news and simply 'take it' as a fact and, most of the time, not even care.
But the biggest surprise WAS the first day of the military school. Starting basic training. We were all saying goodbye to our families, everyone was smiling, and they told us to board a bus. The bus had its windows blacked out. Before the door even closed the smiling faces of the upperclassman became sneers. "Shut up! Look straight forward! I want everyone on the front third of their seat, staring at the seat back in front of you, with your chins as far in as you can get them! Hands in your lap! Do not talk. Do not whisper. Don't you even ****ing sneeze. You will remain this way until we reach 'The Hill' where you will get off, and we will welcome you to hell."
That day shocked me so much (COMPLETE contrast to anything I was used to or even prepared for. I didn't have ANY clue basic training/freshman year would be like that). We were up in a hallway and I was literally on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Sweating, eyes getting all twitchy, etc. I was so bad that I was pulled aside by one of the female upperclassmen who was yelling and she had to tell me to take deep breaths and calm down. Then she looked me in the eye and said, "Relax. It's all a game." Then she put me back in line and started yelling at me again.
As she was yelling at me I was in a bit of euphoria for a few seconds as I contemplated her words. And I realized, it IS all a game. They're not attacking ME. They're not yelling at ME. They're yelling at US. The freshman. And I was fine ever since (actually became somewhat of a leader amongst my squadron of freshman. Always ready for the next challenge, always there to help a fellow classmate, and someone that my classmates KNEW could be depended upon for ANYTHING.)
So my biggest surprise was about one half hour of the first day of basic training. Until that girl said those words that I'll never forget. But man. What a freakin' surprise. I didn't know what stress was before that day. And after completing that freshman year in its entirety (through which I think about %20 of those started didn't complete their first year), I think I'm ready for any other 'surprises' this world can throw at me.
Rod Steele
PS - a CLOSE second would be 9/11. Cause I was woken up in that same school by flashing alarms (which I didn't even know we had) and military police running up and down the hallways bearing loaded M16s, sometimes accompanied by K-9 companions shouting at me to stay in my room. I turned on the TV in my room and it took me a while to realize that WE, the USA, were under attack. And being in that school had built up a deep patriotism and I just couldn't believe it.  | 
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