Good Days at the Academy

I'm a little behind in my Academy reporting ... I'm just now getting around to posting about Week 10, which ended on the 21st. I blame it on a little thing called Christmas. :)

Jay's favorite Academy teacher recently told the class that there are only 3 good days at the Academy:

1. The day your Senior class graduates
2. The day the new Juniors arrive
3. The day you graduate

The end of Week 10 was one of those good days - Jay's senior class, CTC-II-07, graduated! Graduation brings with it a huge amount of preparation, including really fun activities for Jay's class including polishing every millimeter of brass in the entire Academy and getting yelled at about having a perfect uniform.

However, it's not all bad. One of the cooler things that happens during graduation week is the Capitol Run. Very early Wednesday morning the seniors, along with almost the entire Staff, run from the Academy to the Sacramento Capitol building. In a show of support, the junior class lines up along the road that leads out of the Academy and waits in push-up position, screaming and hollering their support until all of the runners pass by. Family and friends of the seniors can wait outside the Academy grounds and whoop and cheer as well. It was a cool experience for Jay to see the seniors participate in the long-awaited event, and it was even cooler to see their families outside in the pre-dawn cold, cheering them on. I can't wait for my turn! You know I'll be there so that I can embarrass - I mean, support - Jay as much as possible.

Friday morning the junior class didn't have PT (whoo hoo!) because the gym was all set up and prepped for graduation. Instead, they had the privilege of running around the seniors' dorms like a bunch of wild banshee's, yelling and chanting and pounding on doors... a little wake up call, if you will. The seniors were already up, of course, and many of them came to the door dressed in their tans. It was pretty motivating for Jay to see cadets that were just wearing Smurf blue yesterday now wearing the uniform of a California Highway Patrol officer. It makes it all seem so much more within reach. No wonder Jay's teacher described it as one of the "good days."

The rest of the day the juniors were instructed to be out of sight, lest they do something foolish. Jay, however, was on babysitting duty (which he kindly volunteered for, along with several other cadets and some officers). He realized later he might have been better off being banished to his room because he could have gotten some actual work done, but I think he had fun playing cars and showing magic tricks to the kids, too.

And now Jay's class is all alone, at the mercy of the Academy staff who can now focus 100% of their attention on them. Not a good thing, I think. Luckily, there is one more of those "good days" right around the corner! The junior class, CTC-I-08, arrives on Monday January 7th and will command much of the Staff's attention. Shucks! Jay and his class will then be seniors... it's hard to believe that milestone is so close! It's really within reach, isn't it? Some days it seems like the Academy will go on forever, but in truth the weeks are going by pretty fast. Here's hoping it continues that way...