Personal Narrative: The Naval Academy Summer Seminar

Four or Five years ago if you were to tell me that I would be confidently applying to the University of Miami I would have laughed. Through high school I did not give much effort and like most of my peers, thought that furthering my education was my only option. Nearing the end of my senior year I started realizing that no noteworthy university would even consider accepting someone like me. As the days ticked away, I applied to a nearby college with an incredibly high acceptance rate and found myself opening an acceptance letter a few weeks later.

I started drawing when I was 16. I was cursing 10th grade, or how is called in my country, Dominican Republic “Segundo de Bachillerato”. It was recess. I was alone in my classroom that day, besides two or three people who were just killing time there, and I didn’t had much to do with my time. I was at the last book of a series of books which names I can’t remember and If I recall correctly the last book was very boring for some reason so I didn’t wanted to read it anymore. So, looking for something to do, I stood from my seat and walked boringly down the aisle of chairs and that was, not my first interaction with art, but the first time I remember i liked art or paid attention to it. Yerkis, a guy of my class: short, chubby and well mannered

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

The three things I learned this summer was that I just have to read every once In a while and I understand stuff. Reading this summer has improved a lot in my opinion. I can follow along with the professional reader when he reads and I can follow along with my pen when Mcgee reads, so that has improved since the school year. Also that our teacher can talk about things and actually make you think a little bit. Just when he does the little kindergarten impressions, he makes a really good point. He makes you think in depth which I think is a good thing.

During my two last years of high school, i've been in contact with a lot of colleges and universities. Many of which don’t get my attention. Throughout my whole high school years, there was only one college that i wanted to go to, Liberty University. I have heard so many wonderful things about Liberty and what i loved the most was that it was a christian school. Liberty had the number one thing that i am looking for in a college, that is a christian school, but many of my other things that i look for in a college where just not there. I used to live in Florida approximately 11 years ago and let me tell you, it's hard not to miss the sunshine state. Liberty is in Virginia, a state where it doesn't feel like home. When i received a brochure

Over my years of school, one big influence on me has always been sports. Ever since a young age, I have always enjoyed playing and watching sports. In my four years in high school, I have fell in love with the sport of lacrosse.

I woke up and took one bite out of my pop tart but that one bite was all I could eat. My legs were shaking, and my heart was pounding. My dad told me, “It is a true honor to even make it this far so go out there and have some fun.” Once I heard this statement, I knew I was ready to go. I arrived at school and boarded the bus. The car ride was an hour and fifteen minutes of hearing the squeaking of the wheel on the bus. My teammates were getting their heads ready for the big game.

Being at the Chief’s Academy has been a great experience for me. I have learned many things during my time here that I will take back to my unit and apply to my day-to- day work. In the following paragraphs I will talk about three things specifically. The first thing I will take back will be my dedication to working out and my overall fitness. I will take what I have learned about fitness and share it with my subordinates. Secondly, in relation to the generations class, I will think about how people are different and how they come from different places and how I need to adjust my self to those differences. Lastly, I will take what I have learned about coaching and use that to better understand my people by listening and asking thought provoking questions. Even though I have learned many things, these are the three that I believe I will

In this class, I have learned many new skills to improve my writing, and I have also learned new grammar rules. In regards to my writing, I have learned the importance of freewriting when beginning to write a paper. Additionally, I now know to allow ample time for revising and editing because I can look at my work critically for mistakes and make necessary changes. Furthermore, I have learned about grammar rules such as pronoun-antecedent agreement. This rule is something that I know subconsciously, but being made aware of it has allowed me to find mistakes I make more often.

Just so you know, this is the Big Apple and I rule this town. New York City is filled with tall buildings, great culture, and historical sites. No other city has so much beauty that it takes your breath away; yet, there is a real danger that lurks on the streets. I should know because I am Detective Michael Morgan a United States Super Spy in charge of capturing dastardly villains who are set on destroying our world. Armed with mind-altering powers, Alex Higgins is on the top of the FBI’s list of the ten most wanted men in America. This thug is one of the greatest danger to our world and must be captured and jailed in the vault of death. There is no place safe for him to hide from the law and rumor has it, he is in my town. You break the law here in New York City, you pay the ultimate price: freedom.

I was never really good in school. I graduated high school with a 2.15 GPA, and I blame that on my struggle to focus for long periods of time. Furthermore, I struggled with math and science in high school. I failed geometry twice and chemistry once. To overcome these educational barriers, I employ two things I learned in the military: get the task done and get it done right the first time, and hold yourself accountable for your actions.

Life at the Academy is rough. There are days the midshipmen will love it and other days when they hate it. Eventually, I understand that the loves out weigh the hates, however, in the beginning, especially during plebe year, it may feel overwhelming to many. Many Naval Academy graduates say the “Naval Academy is a tough place to be, but a great place to be from.” Concerning that, there were some regulations that I only discovered with further observation. Mealtime is an example of those ever so important Naval Academy rituals, demonstrating the unique training program of our military. At all formal meals, plebes only use the front three or four inches of their chairs, sitting at attention, with the exception of the chairs in the academic buildings and plebe/Fourth Class dorm-rooms. Also when walking down corridors they can

The preseason practices focused on teaching us things like diving and learning the strokes. Along the way, we recruited a few people from my grade. The only other guy from my grade ended up quitting by the time we got to the first real practice. Some of the others that joined with me did not know how to swim which is why the preseason came in handy. By the time real practices started up, no one was drowning and everyone had at least a basic knowledge of swimming. Even some teachers were highly supportive of me while it may have been because of my brother’s influence. The first few weeks, I viewed all my upperclassmen as really good swimmers and thought would be hard to catch up to them. My main coach seemed to be super cool and was the current holder of our school’s records, but as a newbie, I worked with the secondary coach who was extremely nice and

English 101 was a challenging course. A constant stream of reading and writing lead to a demanding yet rewarding semester. The variety of texts read and written about provided a plethora of life lessons and demonstrations of values. Now at the end of the course I find myself a better student and writer. The texts themselves were not influential to my growth as a critical reader or college student. Rather, it was my own analysis of the texts that allowed me to consider other perspectives on technology use in the classroom and the importance of revision when it comes to school work.

The next part of the training turned out to be the toughest. We were required to dive ten feet to the bottom of the pool and retrieve a ten pound weight. Once the weight was brought to the surface we were supposed to tread water for two minutes while keeping the weight above the water line. This appeared to be simple so I dived in, expecting an easy time. I had no trouble getting the weight to the surface and proceeded to tread water with a feeling of undoubtable success. But once again my anti-floating physical quality began to take effect. At one minute and thirty seconds I began to sink and within the next fifteen seconds my head was submerged and I was fighting for air. The water from the pool began flowing into my mouth with each desperate grasp for air; it felt as if an ocean were draining into my body. I remember hearing from under the water the instructor's muffled voice counting down the last ten seconds of the exercise. When it was all over I slowly made my way back to the pool's edge where I was informed by the two young girls that they had no difficulty