(A cadence is a song or rhythm called out to keep marching people in step, I.E. "Left, right, left right," in it's simplest form, or "Old King Cole was a merry old soul and a merry old soul was he, uh-huh," in one of the more complicated iterations.)
(Anyway, this post is an update, and basically has nothing to do with cadences.)
Orders is orders, and so I finished basic training and was immediately sent to Officers Candidate School without so much as a stopover with the family. I've spent the week getting some hard workouts in and preparing myself for the physical training test on Monday, which is the first significant hurdle to getting into the school. Thankfully, the scores are adjusted for age, but I'd rather take a month to work out and get ready.
OCS is a different kind of place in the military. Or at least a different atmosphere from basic training -- where you get so used to people treating you like dirt it becomes an expectation. And then we show up here and suddenly we can do things like go to places by ourselves or go to chow when we want to, etc. It's a little unsettling.
Training starts Monday. It's funny, everyone knows that it'll involve working out, academic work, field training -- but no one has any idea what privileges we'll have (cell phone, internet, free pushups, etc.) and that's what people are talking about.
The other day, we were marching to a formation, and the person calling cadence brought up a number from basic:
"Here we go again.A guy I went to basic training with was behind me, muttering "No. God, no." We're all kind of there. Everyone is actually enthusiastic about the training and what it'll do for us, everyone misses the people they can't be with.
Same old stuff again.
Marching down the avenue.
Twelve more weeks and we'll be through."
