This story is about my life (not going to give specific details like what town or what school I go to so please don't ask). It will be about my experience with Navy Junior ROTC at my school and going through the different training and everything (pl...
We are now about 10mins away from Camp Natural Bridge and were just told to get all the last laughs out, put on a straight face, put on out covers, and look straight ahead no matter what.
This is all becoming real, this isn't some dream or figment of my imagination, this is real. We are actually 10mins away from Camp Natural Bridge.
5mins, everybody has stoped talking and is now looking forward awaiting our arrival.
2mins, I can see all the different signs for different bases near Camp Natural Bridge.
We are now pulling into Camp Natural Bridge.
I see men and woman in military camouflage instructing other Cadets in the same outfits as us what to do.
I hear the men and women in military uniform yelling at the other Cadets.
The fear is starting to sink in, fear of it I will make it or not, fear of if I will get injured, fear of if someone from my school will expose me and everyone will know my secret.
Transgender. I'm not ashamed of it but I wouldn't be surprised if I would get teased for it if any of the men and women in military uniform found out or even my fellow Cadets.
The bus comes to a stop and two men in military uniform come onto the bus.
"LETS GO GET OFF THIS BUS AND GRAB SOME LUGGAGE!" the skinnier one yells.
Nobody moves.
"WELL DON'T JUST SIT THERE GET MOVING!!" the second one screams.
Now we move to exit the bus and go to the back for luggage. We all gather round and the two men start to throw out bags and we patiently wait for ours.
"STOP STANDING THERE AND GRAB A BAG I DON'T CARE IF IT'S YOURS OR NOT JUST MOVE THEM!" one yells.
We start to grab bags and gradually the crowd gets smaller until all the bags have been moved. We are told to find our bags and take then with us to make a formation with four squads (lines) of people.
We form up and they start calling names and if they call yours then you are in the right place and you are in the First Platoon. Many names are called and only a few peoples names who are present are called meaning that the rest of us are in the wrong place.
I don't understand, I've done pretty much everything they have told us to do so far how could we have already messed up, the only thing we messed up was not getting off the bus right away, but I'm pretty sure everyone did that.
Some men and women dressed in military uniform come over and ask whats wrong, the Cadet Aids tell them that most of our group is not in the right place and that only a select few are actually in the First Platoon.
The men and women then go summon a few other Cadet Aids running different platoons to figure out which platoon the rest of us are in. I wait and wait as they call names not hearing mine once.
There is only a few of us left, probably 5, and our names have not been called which means that they either forgot to put us on the list or accidentally skipped over our names.
A Cadet Aid comes over to help figure out what platoon I am in. Apparently what happened was that some of the lists of names were different then others and they finally figured out that I am in the third platoon.
I walk over to the platoon and one of the men in military uniform starts to talk to me.
"Welcome to Third Herd Waldo" he says. Waldo? That's not my name, must be a nickname he just came up for me then. I guess it kinda makes sense, I do have nerd classes and I have been lost for a good 10-15 mins so I guess the nickname Waldo suits me.
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"Now go join the formation" he says.
I leave and start to go around to the back of the formation.
"Hey Waldo where are you going you don't walk in front of a formation go around the back" he tells me.
I turn around and go to the back from the other side. Well this day has been great so far, just getting yelled at really.
First lesson learned, never walk in front of a formation unless you want to get yelled at and/or do more PT(physical training)
Kind of a short one but I really needed to update this because it is now early December and we went to BLT during late September so I really need to get this story caught up to present time. To anyone who is actually reading this other that myself(😂yes I an that person that reads their own stories) or one of my close friends thanks for sticking around even though I haven't updated in a while but hopefully a new update will be coming soon(hopefully finish BLT before new years when I will most likely forget a lot of details) so please stay tuned.
