I got back at 2pm from a retreat I took with the UCF group. I basically didn’t get as much relaxing as I thought I would but didn’t have to think about the real life and school. There were some panel discussions and seminars that we all went to, and I took some really cool outside picture shots. I’ll try to post some of the photos as soon as I can.

Tonight, I got to chat with my friend Justin who is attending school at the Naval Academy. He’s gonna be there through his sophomore year then to transfer out to another school. Why you ask? He went to the Navy right out of high school for about three solid years. Now that there’s so much uncertainty about war and having served for those years, he’s ready to get out and become a civilian.

What I didn’t realize is his free time only occurs on Saturdays for 12 hours. On the other days, they have set schedules for just about everything and he spends Sundays trying to catch up on homework he wasn’t able to make time for. Besides that, all first year midshipmen have to take a course load of no less than about 20 hours.

They are forced to participate in extracurricular activities such as sports that usually run right into dinner. So that pretty much takes his time up during the year. During the summer, he has to go to sea and train to live like a sailor. Probably he’ll have only one free week the whole time. And then it’s back to more drone-like school.

What really amazed me is if he were to stay in through his Junior or Senior year, he would have to commit to another 5-7 years of service after graduation. Because he’s planning on transferring before his Junior year, he will be free from all those burdens. It’s simply amazing to know what other people have to go through in life. And I thought I had a difficult life . . .