Class of 2017 Ring Dance

We are only a couple of days away from the day that will bring news of what the members of the Class of 2017 will be doing for the next few years of their careers. While waiting to hear the much anticipated news, I thought now would be a great time to finish up the blog post that my roommate and I began about the Ring Dance this past May! (Many thanks and memory credit goes to McKenna for this one!!!)

Photo by Jackalope Photography (@jackalope.photos)

Just days after the two of us walked across the stage at our college graduation ceremony at Franciscan University, we were headed out to the East Coast for the famed Ring Dance. This event was something Lauren had been looking forward to for three years and McKenna had merely three days to join in the anticipation. As planned, Lauren was spending a week at McKenna’s house in West Virginia following graduation, job interviews, and before the weekend in Annapolis. While enjoying a well-earned week off post-graduation, Sean extends a last-minute invitation to the dance on behalf of a friend of his, and McKenna excitedly accepted the invitation.

We arrived in Annapolis early on the Friday before the dance. We spent the evening roaming the huge Annapolis mall, eating Chick-Fil-A, and watching the live-action take on The Jungle Book on the big screen (quite entertaining, if you haven’t seen it yet!).

The town awoke to a very damp morning, and an even more inclement forecast for the evening of the Ring Dance. But, it didn’t do much to dampen the excitement all the midshipmen and their dates had for the festivities!

Just before lunchtime the primping for the afternoon began. We set up a “work station” at Sean’s lovely sponsor mom’s house to start curling one another’s hair. One of Sean’s roommate brought his lovely girlfriend over for introductions and for getting ready as well. The boys supplied tons of Chinese food to help with getting ready, haha! They also had to run out to get us “regulation” umbrellas that they would be allowed to carry (hint: they had to be black).

After spending more time than any of us would like to admit, we were dance-ready and headed to the Yard. All of the second class midshipmen were given a parking pass that lasted the day so that they could park on the Yard, which we were all immensely grateful for. We started with photos in the rotunda taking photos and meeting up with people, which was especially ideal given the weather. Lauren was able to meet up with a few members of the girlfriend’s group for the Class of 2017 that she had known via social media and cell phones for years, but only then had the opportunity to meet (which was absolutely lovely!).

While waiting for more photos in the rotunda, McKenna finally met her date for the evening. We enjoyed finally getting to pair faces with the names we had heard so often. It was especially exciting getting to see an entire class of midshipmen all celebrating their time at the academy.

Next in the line of event was the famous class ring dunking photos. While totally worth it for the sentiment, many of them turned out quite laughable. But, we had to keep in mind that only hours before, the entire parking lot on which the photographer’s station was set had been completely flooded and they were required to pump out the water in order to set up their equipment. As for buying photos: there are many options available, but we would recommend getting the digital copy. While it was mainly the cheapest option, it gave you the rights to the photo as well as a hard copy. The business who took all of the photos also had the photos to the midshipman within the week after the event, which for such a large event was quite impressive!

A group of our date’s company-mates had reserved us a couple of table at Deep Creek, a sit-down restaurant on the river that really seemed to cater to all atmospheres. When we first pulled up, it looked like it was about to fall into the river, but the inside was lovely. Best of all, it was the best food service we had ever experienced along with some pretty awesome food. It had everything from sandwiches to filet mignon (and lots of adult beverages to choose from which was a perk those over 21 were very pleased about).

We very much enjoyed the company shared at dinner, and everyone made it back to the yard at about 8:30 p.m. The dance had begun at 9 p.m. and was set to end at around 11 p.m. We had a little trouble getting back onto the Yard, because my home state had only shortly before (unbeknownst to us of course) changed the state ID laws, meaning that I would need a second form of identification from now on in order to enter the yard. The guard had pity on Lauren’s ignorance, and let us on the Yard with only her driver’s license.

Many member’s of Sean’s company all wanted to go down to dance together, so we waited for quite a while before finally stepping foot on the dance floor. The Class of 1967 were present for the dance and were co-hosts for the evening. They were encouraged to try to find the dates that they took to their ring dance and bring them to the Class of 2017’s dance.

It was very different from what we experienced at the International Ball the previous year. The main two reasons being: it was all members of the same class in comradery together and the alcohol was legal and plentiful. For some, the alcohol was merely an aid in their merry-making, but for others it left them hurling in the bathrooms in their lovely outfits (we would recommend the first outlet and not the last). McKenna especially found the Ring Dance to be very busy compared to the I-Ball in the sense of it having a more social and milestone agenda over a general dance.

To continue our post-dance tradition, we went to Chick and Ruth’s in downtown Annapolis and had a lovely time drinking our milkshakes and telling stories from the day. Both Sean and Shahid were so kind as to drive all over tarnation after midnight to locate the hotel room that Sean had reserved for us two worn-out travelers. To top off the weekend, we ended it with lots of delicious Indian food that we cannot pronounce.

It is still being talked about amongst us all to this day and will be for years to come, we are sure!

Couple bits of advice:

• Be very careful what shoes you choose to wear for the day, as you will be in them for close to nine hours or so if not more!
• If you want to carpool with a midshipman onto the Yard instead of walking (highly recommended), park in the St. John’s parking lot because it is free on the weekends.
• Bring more than one form of legal ID, just to be sure!

P.S. Good luck to the Class of 2017 this Thursday as you find out your Service Selection! You all are in my thoughts and prayers!

Halfway Through Sophomore Year…almost.

First off, I’d like to give a shout-out to all those who have stumbled across our blog within the past few days…you helped to push us over 13,000 views. :)  Thanks for taking the time to read our rambling posts…each and every one of you are in my prayers!  Thank you also for all of those who have written to me with questions or just to chat…it is wonderful hearing from you (even if I do take forever to respond!).  Well, to be honest…the “threatening” email wasn’t my favorite one to receive…you must be awfully bored! ;) But thank you to that midshipman for including their IP address with their lovely sentiments…that has come in handy!

Well, official midterm exams are over, the weather is colder and Thanksgiving break is right around the corner (15 days…but who’s counting?!).  Life is good!…although, with the cold weather, I wish I was at home to enjoy the nice, warm fireplace…hmm.  Things are super busy…hence the large gap between posts…but it is probably going to stay this busy until the end of the semester!  I am loving my classes and just completed my registration for next semester.  Many fun and exciting things on the horizon!

I am working two jobs at the moment (not including running my little store):  I am working custodial for my dorm and I am writing about an article a week for a newspaper.  While I have gotten very good at scrubbing showers and toilets, I would have to say that I prefer working as a reporter as opposed to custodial. :)  The little t-shirt business is doing well, thanks to all of you!  I am excited by all the positive feedback!

Oh, and here is my endorsement of ooVoo…it has made life so much nicer!  Compared to occasional letters over the summer, this is verging on spoiling the two of us.  And that is okay with me!  So if you want a suggestion…download ooVoo…it solves most of Bancroft’s “dead-zone” problems!  Haha!

Sean was also able to make a bus trip out here to Steubenville on one of his long weekends…thanks to Navy’s football team who earned a weekend for the Brigade! ;)  That was an absolute blast.  I didn’t think he would be able to see my campus until his Firstie year…but yet, it happened!  I will let him tell you more of his adventures with that trip another time…between the taxi driver and the Greyhound ride…good stories…

By the way, it seems as if they have changed all mailing addresses of the midshipmen.  So if you are curious as to why your mail is taking forever/being sent back…that is probably why!  It is now:

MIDN -/C John Smith

1 Wilson Road # (five digit p.o. box is the same)

Annapolis, MD 21412

Also, lastly….the store is officially back up and running!  Sorry for it being down for such an extended period of time…but we are back! :)

Store Update :)

I created a Facebook page for the store! :)  Check it out and give it a “like“!  (Click the picture)

One of my friends is wearing her shirt around Annapolis this weekend!  She sent me a picture of her and her new shirt before she headed to the airport.  :)

ALSO:  I printed the first bumper stickers today…and I put #1 on my car!  I love it…I hope you will too!

Happy Parents’ Weekend to you all!  Check out the store when you get a chance! :)  Blessings!

One Month After I-Day

(5 days until 3rd phone call and 33 days until Annapolis visit.)

As of yesterday, it has been exactly a month since Sean was inducted into the Naval Academy.  Some days it seems like it has been longer, and other days it seems like he just left yesterday.  Both of which can be good.  On one hand, it can feel like his Plebe Summer is almost over, and on the other, all those memories from our summer together seem very recent!  But anyway…

When I talked to him last week he told me that on that Sunday evening all the platoons would be getting new detailers.  I guess the summer is so taxing that they have to change detailers half-way through! ;)  He also said that he had validated out of four classes, so his work-load will be lighter this coming fall semester.  He became ill during his second week at the Academy (he is doing better now) and he had to quit boxing (which he was disappointed about) but he got to switch to intramural soccer which he seems to be enjoying.  Although, they have had a bunch of “Black Flag Days” (meaning it is too hot to be outside to exercise) so they have not had soccer practice, so he has used that time to write letters to me!  I have no problem with that whatsoever!  I have received over a dozen letters from him since I-Day.  Snail-mail is truly snail-mail, and I normally get his letters about a week after he has written them.   Yet, they seem to be arriving more promptly as of late which is really nice!  I continue to write him everyday, and he has told me how much he loves getting my letters and tells me to send more (haha).  Many other things have happened on his side of Plebe Summer, but I will let him tell you all about that once he gets back!

Many things have happened on my side of the States as well.  I am less than a month away from moving to Franciscan University so things are a bit crazy.  I just got back from a girls-weekend with my mom and sisters though…so that was a blast!  I have been working quite a bit, and my “last work day” before leaving for college has been set which is really weird.

I am a moderator for the USNA Class of 2017 Girlfriends Facebook group, which is really fantastic!  I have met and befriended many other women who are going through the same things and it has been quite a blessing!  If you are a Mid’s girlfriend…look into and consider joining one of these groups, it is a great resource!  Such a good support-group!  Contact me if you need any help finding one… ;)

I am also working on a huge project:  a clothing-line for USNA Girlfriends.  There are tons of t-shirts and such for Navy girlfriends, but nothing really for those of us who are dating midshipmen at the Naval Academy!  So hopefully you will get to see the fruits of my labor some time this week!  I am really excited about this project, and I hope you will be too!

Little preview for you? ;)

First Phone Call

(12 Days until 2nd phone call and 53 days until Annapolis visit).

 

Yesterday I was able to talk to Sean for the first time since he reported on I-Day on June 27th!  It was so wonderful to hear his voice and to know that he is doing okay.  We were both anticipating only being allowed to talk for about five minutes, and he ended up getting almost a full thirty minutes to talk to me and his family.  It was such a blessing!

He seems to be doing very well altogether!  Physically, he is doing fantastic…he is just really missing friends and family.  He said multiple times how much he needed letters and pictures from home.  So far he has received 3 out of about 8 letters that I have sent to him.  He hadn’t gotten mail in a few days and he figured it was only because his platoon was being punished.  Sean said that the weakest member of the platoon makes or breaks everyone else.  If one person messes up, everyone gets punished.  They are definitely getting a taste of what the military is like! ;)  He should be getting the rest of the letters and packages soon though.

I went over to his parent’s house for the phone call, and it was very nice.  It was very strange at first being at “Sean’s house” without him! But it was great getting to visit and catch-up with his family.  They had also received a letter from him and it had three letters enclosed for me as well!  They were from the evening of I-Day and that Saturday.

We all talked to him together on different phone-lines around the house for the first 20 minutes, and then to my surprise they said goodbye to him and let me have the last few minutes to talk to him by myself.  It was very thoughtful and I cherished those last few minutes with him.  He told me that he is counting down the days until the day I come to see him in August.  He also begged me for more pictures and letters.  While on the phone with him I tried to make him laugh as much as I could and I told him not to worry about me and that “this too shall pass”.  There was a 90 second warning and shortly thereafter a rushed, “I have to go…goodbye, I love you” and then the phone clicked off.  I was very proud…I didn’t cry until after he had hung up the phone, so he will never know! ;)

Sean will get three phone calls altogether during Plebe Summer, and the next one is on July 21st.  Supposedly, we will have thirty minutes to talk with him each time, which is wonderful!  Until then, I am writing lots of letters and I am sending care-package #2 off to Annapolis this afternoon!

Keep us in your prayers!

Goodbyes and Good-Times

So I-Day is tomorrow….

I’m leaving with my family on the thirteen hour drive today where there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Lauren and I may have hit a record of longest time hanging out together, with the count ending at a little over 22 hours straight.

I used to think that the last day with Lauren before Plebe Summer would be really difficult. I was right, but it was better than I thought. After much discussion and planning, I think that we have what it takes to make it through the four years. My biggest concern has been and continues to be the immersion of the Academy, and the incredible demand it takes on your time and energy. I know how a busy routine can be, and hope that ours won’t swamp us.

This is the last post I’ll actually be posting for a while, since I will soon lose my status as a human and will become that rare amphibian species called a Plebe for the next six weeks. With the wait finally over and the goodbyes almost said, the excitement is setting in. We can finally go get this thing, finally see why only 2% endure and if we make the cut. In the last few days a lot of Academy grads or spouses, all “two percenters”, have contacted us with encouragement basically telling us to chill out, it’s not that bad. Hopefully they’re right! In all honesty, if people have been doing this since 1845 with letters to their sweethearts, how hard can it be with Facetime, cars, and cell-phones?

These next six weeks are all a mystery to me but I know that they will be about as enjoyable as any other product of a cow’s butt. Hopefully they’ll get done and seem like a blur quickly…

Pray for us and wish us luck.

The Girl’s First Reactions

32 days until I-Day.

Having your best friend break the news that he has decided to leave in under three months to an academy where contact is severely restricted and relationships with your high school sweetheart can not possibly be the top-priority – talk about a bad day!

Now, before I continue with my story I want to let you all know how very proud I am of Sean. It is quite an opportunity that he has been given to attend USNA, and he made his hard decision by way of prayer and lots of discernment while I stood on the sidelines with baited breath. This summer is going to bring a whole new world of change into our lives, but it will hopefully be well worth it in the long run!

Okay, now lets be honest. When you find out that your boyfriend/girlfriend is ditching you for the uniform your first reaction definitely isn’t going to be “Oh, hooray! Thanks for leaving me behind! Yay!”. That would be absurd. No one is asking you to be that brave (or at least they shouldn’t be *ahem*). I certainly didn’t jump for joy after he told me he would be leaving in June. In fact, I was in tears for a good 24 hours afterwards. While I saw the writing on the wall a few weeks before he made his decision, the moment where it all began to sink in was a tipping point. The fact that the Lenten Season had just begun around the time that these things were all going on could not have been a coincidence!

I was faced with a hard decision of my own after Sean had made the choice to leave. I had given him time to make his decision, now it was my turn to choose if I wanted to continue to pursue the relationship we had been building up for nearly two years at this point. Once he had told me what he had planned to do, I was quite disoriented. We had spent the last few months making plans to be living two and a half hours from one another at two “normal” universities and driving to see each other as often as we could. Now, it seemed like everything had changed, and I felt a little betrayed. I was going to be going to Franciscan in the fall, and he would be leaving for the Academy at the end of June.

My first reaction was to break off our relationship. I mean, how can you date someone when that person is not around to actually date? I went back and forth about this for days. I talked with my parents about it, and I, of course, talked to Sean about it. He told me that it wasn’t fair of him to ask me to wait 4 or more years for him. After a few days of consideration I figured that I knew that in the long run I wanted to be a part of his life, so why throw a wrench into our relationship right now? It was an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” type of situation. While it wouldn’t be fair of him to have asked me to wait for him, I could give him that gift of waiting for him.

After I had told him that I wanted to continue to try to make our relationship last and that I would wait for him after he left, I also made it as clear as I could how I felt about it and how this would affect the rest of our lives (to the extent that we can predict our future of course).

Many ideas were tossed about as to how we can make it through the next four plus years. We are working on writing a list of expectations and rules that we as a couple follow while we are together and away from one another. The reason for doing so is to take some of the pressure off one another and to set reasonable expectations now when we are not sad or angry because we haven’t visited each other in months or heard from the other in days. We have also already set up tentative days for visits or breaks that we will potentially have. Doing this gives us something to look forward to as this long and strange summer is quickly approaching. With Plebe Year looming in the distance, we are not taking any time for granted!

Getting Started

36 Days until I-Day.

So today I just got done with high school, officially.  It’s a relief to be totally finished with mandatory schooling, and exciting to know that I’ll start this adventure soon.  It is still, however, one step closer to leaving home.

A little about me: I’m a seventeen-year-old red-headed Irish Catholic. I am the first person in my family to serve in the military, and am very honored to be doing so.  I’ve been interested in joining the military since my sophomore year of high school, and heard about the Naval Academy shortly thereafter.  Just after THAT, I met Lauren, and we have dated most of the 27 months since then.  I am lucky to have had Lauren in my life for as long as I have.  One problem with this blog is that it can’t really allow me to describe accurately how wonderful she is (I’ve tried for two years to put it into words and it hasn’t worked!) so I won’t try.  Hopefully everyone that reads this has or will feel the same way about someone else during their lifetime.  What I will say is that I do not want our relationship to end because of our choice of schools.

I have spent countless hours sitting in front of various computers, googling similar things over and over again: “Naval Academy relationships”, “surviving Naval Academy relationships”, “USNA 2% club”, “how to make military relationships work”, and a million others that I can’t remember.  Many of them were helpful, but there were few accounts of people currently in Academy relationships, and the only advice offered on relationships was on how to break them off!

Now I know that in every class at the US Naval Academy, there are about 1100 people who report on I-day.  Two percent of 1100 is 22, so there are on average 22 relationships in every class that survive.  Yet for all these, there were almost no accounts of personal experiences to be found on the internet or elsewhere! So we’ve started this blog as both therapy and record-keeping for us, and advice and tips for prospective Midshipmen and their sweethearts.

For now, all we’re doing is preparing.  How? We’re hanging out every chance we get. Personally, I’m still in denial about leaving.  Living in the moment as I have been is great, but I know it’ll get harder as the countdown progresses.  As a student, an athlete, and a young man of ambition, I am excited whenever I think about the challenge and the pride of attending the Academy.  As Lauren’s boyfriend, I’m anxious; I want the waiting to end and I want to see if we have what it takes to last (I believe we do), but I want to enjoy this last schedule-less summer without it passing too quickly.

It’s an exciting time right now.

A Little Bit About Us….

 

37 Days until I-Day:

Well welcome to our blog!  I figured the best way to introduce this whole adventure would be to introduce the two of us to you. : )  (If you just want the basics, I would recommend skipping this bit and just going to the About Us page)…but, if you are still here: lets get started!

Sean and I met each other a couple years ago in a play that we were both participating in.  Ironically, we played the roles of an old married couple…so Sean was introduced to me as “his wife”.  (Yes, don’t laugh too hard!)

After I graduated high school in 2012, I decided to stay at a local community college for my freshman year, not just for the sake of money and family time, but also to ensure that our relationship could continue to flourish for at least another year while Sean was finishing his senior year of high school.  I decided back in the Fall of 2012 to attend the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio beginning in the Fall of 2013 to continue working towards my BA in Journalism.  Once that decision had been made, we began making plans to accommodate the theoretical distance.  While Sean was still working on the application process to the Naval Academy, Ohio State was also one of his main options so that we could be merely a little over two hours away from each other.

This past spring of 2013 plans were coming together.  I had received scholarships for FUS and Sean had gotten a huge scholarship to OSU, but he had never heard back from Annapolis.  March came along, and here comes the packet of acceptance from the Naval Academy…while it was exciting, it was a hard decision to make.

Much praying and discussing came the week after he found out he was accepted.  After he made his decision to go, there were many tears and even more discussion about how this could possibly work out for the two of us.  The fact that only 2% of high school sweethearts make it through to graduation day was definitely disheartening.  Yet, then again, we have taken a pretty irregular approach to your typical high school relationship from the beginning of this whole adventure.

We know where we would like to end up when we make it through to graduation day…I guess you will have to stick with us on our journey through these next four years to see how this story resolves! : )