Final^2 exam day

See what I did there?! It is the final day of final exam week. I can;t believe it's finally friday. There is so much fantastic alliteration fun occurring. Again, I have not slept since the last time I posted, so I at least hope I am still making coherent sentences. One can only hope. After the exam today I have to go to joint color guard practice for graduation. I get to feel important and march the American flag for graduation. Funtastic! I know. After break I will scurry off to my drugs and behavior exam and I will be finally officially be forced to no longer be a freshman. I only used the word forced to emphasize the alliterations happening. I'm doing a poor job of it, so I'll stop now. Tah tah for now! Actually... tah tah forever! Peace out A town down, over and out.

Freshman Problems

Well... after almost completing two semesters of college I've decided that I should probably progressively learn the material throughout the semester instead of kinda learning it and then having to relearn it for finals. Wow, that was a run on sentence. Anyways... as obvious as this epiphany of mine may seem it's taken me this long to figure it out. I say I will change it next semester, but let's be honest, I probably wont. I've been awake for approximately 70 hours. If i was half this diligent throughout the semester life would probably be a lot less stressful. I have a friend who's aiming to get a 22% on her french exam because that's all she needs to get an "A" in the class. I need to get on her level.

i dont even know....

i dont even know if my last post was today or not. i have completely lost track of times and days... what is a day?? because for most purposes, a day is after 24 hours has elapsed. but if youve been awake for more than 24 hours does your day carry over? my day is currently 58 hours and counting. finals week... kindly go curl up in a corner and die. thank you. i may or may not be on the brink of a psychotic melt down.

Chicken Noises

It has been two very long days! I have resided in the library only to leave to take my exams and do my ROTC cadet duties. My post is titled chicken noises because that is what my life has come to. Long sessions of studying with intermediate chicken noises. I have been chicken noises in the middle of the library. I realize this sounds like me going insane. Truth is I AMMMMMMMMM!!! bacockkkkkk cluck cluck cockle doodle doooooo! A lack of judgement would be appreciated!

It's a sad day

It's not actually a sad day... that's just a phrase I use. I usually use it in a completely over exaggerated manner. What I am referring to at the moment though is the fact that it's almost 3 am and I'm still awake. The culprit? What else, exams! I have my Global Politics exam in 9 hours and I am indeed cramming for it. It's going to be a long day. A long sad day. I'm two monsters in. I also discovered Study Blue tonight. It may be the sole reason I will destroy this exam! Woooooooh go study aids. Anyways... I'm going to stop stalling and get back to studying! 

Exam week

I hope everyone is doing well in their studies and the exams they've taken. My first exam isn't until Wednesday so I've been slothing around my dorm room. Let me define slothing, all I've been doing is eating and sleeping. That is not exaggeration. I literally woke up at twelve, at breakfast, messed around on my laptop for a little, and immediately went back to bed. It's not one of my finest moments in life, but... I like my sleep. :)

First dead day

Well it is official. We have no more classes this semester. While these days are primarily designed for us to utilize for last minute studying I will be spending today and tomorrow napping. I actually only woke up a couple hours ago and went to lunch with my big. I am now back in my bed ready for a nappy nap! This makes me sound incredibly lazy, but I prefer to think of it as tapering for my brain. I'm letting it rest before it has to go into hyperactive mode. Yeah... that's it!

Last dayyyyy

It's the last day of classes!!! I'm on my second monster and its only 9 o'clock! I'm wired as can be and I'm ready to attack the day! Yes attack the day! It's kind of difficult to type I'm so hyper! I just noticed I've used an exclamation point at the end of every sentence! I probably shouldn't have opened the second monster. But... It's happened! Oh no, one sentence with out  an exclamation point! It's a sad day!

Finals

So.... who's excited for finals?!?! Not this kid! I've been diligently working on study guides for the past couple days. At this point I do just want to take the finals already. Not to say that I'm excited to take them, just ready to. I can't believe my freshman year of college is almost over. It's really crazy! I'm one fourth done with college. In three years I'll be commissioning into the United States Army. I don't nearly feel ready for it. I'm sure I will be when the time comes. Just thinking about how short my stay at Auburn will be is kinda scary.

Gapping

So... I have been trying to drop statistics for a while now, past the drop date. This was a huge problem. I'm bad at math and I had switched majors, there was zero motivation. As much as I tried to fight it, there was zero motivation. Then I discovered that if you gap a class not in your major it just disappeared. Statistics, consider yourself gapped!

It's the final countdown

Its that time of the year, when everyone is stressed out and on edge. School's almost out and we're about to have three months to ourselves. The sad part that occurred to me the other day was that our senior trainers for ROTC are about to commission in the big Army and we're about to never see them again. It's a relatively small Army though, so maybe one day we'll happen upon each other. Although the chances of me running into Barefield since he is branching Infantry are slim to none. Anyways... back on topic. Everyone good luck with exams! :)

Cadet of the Semester

So, my last post referenced how I got nominated for cadet of the semester. Well, I went to my review board and we were all lined up in class alphabetic order. I was last in my line. When it was finally my turn to go in I was extremely nervous. Before hand LT Sotolongo assured me that nervous was good. To make a long sstury short, I am first platoon's cadet of the semester!! And I got my first challenge coin (which is a big deal).

Cadet Review Boards

I was nominated for cadet of the semester last week. Today I have my review board interview. I was studying like crazy because I would be honored to hold that title, however, we were recently told that $1000 dollars was at stake. Everyone else started studying... SO now I'm extremely nervous. Basically I have to enter a room with three officer and three NCOs and they get to interrogate me. I'm super excited, but super nervous! Wish me luck!

I want to check you for ticks

SO I had an interesting weekend. Saturday morning when I got out of the shower I discovered a tick on my back. Where did it come from? I have no idea. My roommate and I called everyone we could think of. We took everyone's advice until we came upon Cunningham and he came to the rescue. It was then that we were informed that we did everything we were not supposed to do. Our tweezers weren't sufficient so he went to go buy new ones. On the way he ran out of gas and then a wasp flew into his car... Long story short, the tick is still not out.

I need that one thing

I know people view me as "army strong" and super hooah and what not... but I'm still a female.  I'm still going to react like one. I still have feelings. I may act all tough, but deep down I am very insecure. Guys will always be a mystery to me. Despite the fact that I spend like 90% of my time around them I have yet to understand them. What I do know is that most Army guys think they can just toy with girls' emotions and it'll be ok after a simple apology.

AHHH!!!

The second I put on my uniform and realized that it's only Wednesday. It's the middle of the week and I'm already about to die of sleep deprivation. It's like all our teachers conspired together to figure out the best week to overload us. Waking up for PT every other day doesn't help with my sleep issue. I know I need PT so I dont complain... too much at least. I'm still really tired though. This is me NOT whining by the way.

Moday Pop Quiz

So how about that pop quiz this morning. Welcome back to school from the long weekend, BAM! I love how the phrases were so obscure that it was very difficult to even make up answers. Once she said that we were talking about resources it was easier to come up with something to write down at least. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. It's nose to the grindstone now finals are almost here 

Its a hard life

I know that the title of this blog is way over exaggerated. I am aware that living in the United States almost automatically says it’s not a hard life. I know other countries have it worse, but I'm going to take a second to whine about my life. Mainly because we have freedom of speech and I can.
It is freshman year and I’m already sick of school. It’s going to be a rough next three years. All I want to do is make good grades so that I can get active duty and branch. If we took the academics out of school and I was just here to work out and learn how to be a good officer in the United States Army I’d be a happy camper.

FTX ( Field Training Exercise)

   This weekend the War Eagle Battalion had its semi-annual Field Training Exercises. This FTX the first platoon (freshmen) focused on armor. We were put into tank, bradley, and hmmvee simulators. The simulators were very real and they gave us a taste of what being on the battle field.
   I was asked numerous times if I was in the nursing program. Obviously, I must assume this was because I am a female. Furthermore, at the end of the day we were informed that females cannot go into armor. That were are still not allowed in this division of the Army. I immediately thought of my paper and how relevant and infuriating my topic for this manifesto is to me.

Conference

Had my mandatory conference yesterday! It went pretty well, if I do say so myself. Mary liked what I was doing my paper on. She told me this funny story about this time she cited G.I Jane for her paper once. I have a few revisions to do, and I will get started on them shortly. I hope everyone else's papers are coming along smoothly as well.

And so begins the editing process

So I was working on my paper today. Trying to edit it to get ready for my conference tomorrow. I was reading over the two peer reviews I got and I was really grateful to have them. I don’t know who yall are, but thank you for all your constructive criticisms. They really came in handy! 

How I got to my new topic

So... I started out with the belief that in the question of nature vs. nurture, nurture always wins. But then i decided that I wasn't passionate enough about that topic. I mean, I thoroughly believe it to be true, and I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for the nurturing of my extended family, but I felt that I needed fiery passion for this manifesto. I decided that I would write about how all jobs in the military should be open to women. I could argue this topic for days, so I thought it would be good to put into a paper. I watched G.I Jane tonight just to get reinspired and in the writing mood.

Female Army Ranger.... Why not?

I am a female Army ROTC cadet. Despite the fact that the Army is male dominant, women are just as capable (on an individual basis) to do what men do. G.I Jane starring Demi Moore is one of my favorite movies, primarily because I see myself in the main character. I’m not saying all females are capable of getting through ranger school, or navy seal school, but some of us can. However, we aren’t even given the opportunity to go through any of the male only schools. My score on the PT tests makes me eligible to pass basic training, advanced individual training, Airborne, and receive the APFT badge. Despite all these things I would pass, next to the special forces box on my score sheet is a word that drives me insane- INELIGIBLE. The reason given is “to qualify for a special forces slot you must be a male and score at least a 229 on your APFT based on the 17-21 age group standards and obtain a passing height and weight measurement in your own age category”. The only requirement I don’t meet is the twelfth word- male.

            When we take the PT test I get discredited, even though I make a near perfect score (296/300) I’m a “female”. This is mainly due to the fact that there is a female standard and a male standard. I firmly believe that we should get rid of the two standard and adhere to just the male standard. If women want to be seen as equals to men, then we have to prove that we are capable of the same things they are. Maybe not as many females would be able to join the Army, but then we wouldn’t be looked down upon as much. I know that there will always be discrepancies. But excuses like “women aren’t fit to go into combat” or “the American culture doesn’t think women should be on the front lines” or “it’s harder to lose a sister/mother/daughter than it is to lose a brother/father/son” or “a male would be more likely to risk his life to save a female’s” or “a male is more likely to save a female’s life than another male’s” are not acceptable answers to me to keep us off the front lines. The only truly acceptable excuse is “a female prisoner of war is more likely to get tortured in ways that a male would not”. But even then, she knows the risks of her job (if it was open to her) when she signs up.

            I’m not saying that being a ranger is for all females. All I’m saying is that I want the option to go to ranger school if I so chose to. I hate being ineligible for something that I cannot control. I can control my run time, the amount of push ups I can execute, and the amount of sit ups I can execute. What I cannot control is my gender. So, raise the bar for females and then allow us into ranger school. That’s all I ask for, that’s all I yearn for- a chance.

Hey, my name is Mya Nguyen. Technically it's Huong My Thi Nguyen, but I started going by Mya in High school. I am from Jacksonville, Fl. I would like to say that I was born and raised there, but I was actually born on a plane. A lot of people don't believe me when I say that, but it's the truth. My mom and father were on a plane to America and I was born on the way. We had to make a pit stop in the Philippines because they couldn't continue on the plane with a newborn baby. Anyways... I attend Auburn University and am majoring in Psychology with a focus in Pre-law. I am also in Army ROTC and masochistically love it. My favorite movies are all the Harry Potter movies, Fightclub, Boondock Saints, and Lion King. I know, all those movies are very very different. My favorite tv shows are The big bang theory, House, and Doctor Who. That’s me in a nut shell!