The end is nigh!

Woah.

Like, woah.

With 243DTG, I have now purchased my grad ring. I'll only be getting it some weeks from now, as they need to actually make it, but it's bought. I went for a fairly classic, and fairly large, ring in 10K gold, with the Navy crest on one side and the RMC crest on the other. (I'll post pictures as soon as I get the ring.)

I've been thinking lately about how soon it is that I'll graduate and enter "the real world." I won't be entering the full-blown real world, really, as I have much training to do still, but I'll likely go to sea next summer on a real warship (probably a frigate) and might even go on an exchange with a foreign navy--one of the Venture staff told us the French Navy exchange might be happening again next year (a friend of mine spent three weeks on a French frigate last summer), and there is apparently a long list of possible billets on American warships, from carriers to frigates. They generally don't put "acting subbies" on carriers because we'd (we as in just-commissionned officers, which I'm not yet, but will be by then) be too low on the pecking order, but if I can get on some ship in a battlegroup, that'd be pretty sweet. Of course, the ultimage geekgasm would be to go to sea on the USS Enterprise, but I won't hold my breath on that one. Point is, I'll be out of the academia and the routine, 8-to-4 life of a student-officer.

Still, some of my friends will be headed off to finish their army training and then go to whatever the next "combat" assignment is--they're not very likely to go to Afghanistan, or so I hear. Those in the air force will... uh.. keep drinking coffee in nice little offices. And those of us who are the pointy end of the Navy (MARS officers) will head off to the warm and fuzzy west coast to finish our training, and then get posted to various frigates and destroyers.

I don't know if it's MARS III that did it, or the brutal realization that in less than a year I'll hold the Queen's commission, but I feel much better prepared, and more willing, to endure whatever is thrown at me. It sucks at times, but it's just stuff that needs to be done--no big deal. My position--admin officer--entails lots and lots of paperwork and running around and keeping track of stuff and generally staff work that's aggravating and not very rewarding, and I get to do it on top of all the reading I need to do for class, but I don't really care. Not that I don't care about doing the job right, but I've just fallen into a sort of routine and although it feels like I have a fraction of the free time I had last year, it doesn't bother me all that much. Of course I'd love to sit around and play Guitar Hero all day, but somehow doing staff work and schoolwork--while not nearly as fun--fills my time just as well.

I think it's probably the combination of MARS III's grinding, debilitating descent into "useful" knowledge hell--where you learn tons and tons and tons of material that you need to regurgitate and that you're told you also need to remember for next year--and the fact that I'm told life as a JO is even harder, especially getting quals when you first get on ship. You can't work in the wardroom because of tradition, you don't rate an office, and the cabins are cramped, overflowing with people, and devoid of an acceptable number of computers... and you have to stand watches on top of earning your quals. Fun times ahead!

On the personal side... there really isn't much to say. The Navy (well, RMC) is my life right now. I've barely been off the peninsula so far, except for a shopping blitz the day after I got here, and I don't foresee much more forays into civiliandom.

I have, however, decided that I need to work on a fake british accent for those situations where pretending to be some kind of seafaring noble might come in handy. And maybe to try and charm the pants off some lovely ladies. (I'm in the Navy, what do you expect?!) I also require nicer uniforms, especially the high-collar whites (Top Gun). I would like to work on a fake French (as in the country) accent, but I doubt I can pull that off... I can't possibly sound that bad.

I have also decided that I shall try and use as much navyspeak in day-to-day conversation as possible. "Heads," "bulkheads," and everything else I can think of. Not so much because I'm used to it--I haven't been exposed to the Navy for long enough--but because I'm sick of always hearing armyspeak, especially coming from fellow naval officers.

All in all... it's going to be an interesting 242 days. I will try to post more... I'm in fourth year, the purpose of this blog is about to come to an end.*

To a bloody war or a sickly season...

*I won't fall off the blogosphere, or even switch to a new blog, but the point of this was to talk about RMC.

Edit: I forgot to mention: seeing that we're stuck wearing army combats (the "relish suit") vice naval combats... can we at least get back the boot bands that didn't suck?