5 more Days!!!

So I've been meaning to blog the past few days but the past few days of school have been insanely busy, especially with ROTC. Last Tuesday, we had our end of the year Awards Day for all of the cadets who worked hard throughout the past two semesters in ROTC demonstrating leadership and excellence while maintaining good grades in their other classes.

I was very happy with the awards I received this year. I wish I had the actual pictures of me receiving them, but they haven't been posted online yet. I'll just take a few of me holding them up. (Please excuse me for looking like a hot mess.)

This one was the Summer Achievement Award. It's a awarded to the senior cadet who achieved the highest score while attending the Leader's Development Assessment Course  (LDAC) at Fort Lewis, WA last summer. This award really caught me off guard--I really wasn't expecting it. But it's definitely going on my first desk! It's pretty nice right?

For those who are unfamiliar with LDAC, here is a video that shows the kind of training upcoming senior cadets must pass the summer before the senior year in order to commission:




The next award I'll show you is the Golden Eagle Battalion Commander Award:

I thought this one was pretty nice as well. Obviously it's awarded to the cadet Battalion Commander. It will have my picture in it soon enough and is also going on my first desk. When I first heard back in December that I was going to be promoted to the new BC, initially I had a lot of thoughts going through my mind.

I wondered if I could do it so some all of those thoughts up. With 5 more days left until commissioning and 6 left until graduation, I can say that I'm glad I was given the opportunity. It taught me a lot about myself and my capabilities, delegation, motivating your peers to complete their tasks, and so many other things.

I received my end of the semester counseling from the Colonel on Friday. His sustains and improves were not surprising to me. He said that I was a hard worker with a very business-like personality who produces quality work. For my improves he said that I need to work more on delegation.

The past year has been pretty difficult with my class. Most of them aren't exactly the self-motivated type. I usually ended up picking up their slack because I didn't want the mission to fail. But the things that the Colonel had to say made a lot of sense. One of my leadership challenges will be motivation of subordinates. And confronting them with a presence of authority when they don't do their job.

The last award I received was the General's Cup:

This was awarded to the senior cadet that demonstrated the most the principles of officership, leadership capabilities, and scholastic achievement. I'd say I made off like a bandit.

 

 

Well, this is really all I have time to post right now. There is a web design project that stands between me and walking across that stage due tomorrow. I'll make one more post tonight to tell you how our military ball went and take a little bit more about Ft. Bragg. Thank you so much for reading!!

 

~ Melissa