What exactly is "gray space" and why does it have such a profound impact on a plebe's daily life? In this episode, we uncover the origins of this term, tracing it back to Excel spreadsheet color-coding, and explore its implications through firsthand accounts. Hear Troy share vivid memories of spontaneous training sessions and intense workouts that turned unplanned time slots into pivotal moments of Plebe Summer. Whether it leads to impromptu learning opportunities or strenuous physical challenges, gray space is a major factor in the plebe experience.
Rewind to the mid-90s with us as Rick and Troy recount their experiences with the notorious uniform races at the Naval Academy. Picture the chaos of rushing to change uniforms within tight deadlines, all while battling the sweltering Annapolis humidity and lack of air conditioning in Bancroft Hall. We delve into the consequences of wearing incorrect uniform components, the physical punishments that ensued, and how these training practices have evolved over the years. Despite the changes, the essence of rigorous discipline and structured routines remains a cornerstone of the Academy.
We also break down the cultural dynamics of Plebe Summer, focusing on terms like "on chit" and "chit surfer." These terms highlight how some midshipmen navigate medical limitations during physically demanding activities, sometimes earning them a playful label. The episode also tackles the mixed perceptions of "motivated plebes," those who bring contagious enthusiasm to their duties. Reflecting on our own journeys, we emphasize the importance of maintaining high standards and accountability, drawing inspiration from Theodore Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" to underline the value of active participation in overcoming challenges. Join us for an engaging narrative filled with personal stories, reflections, and insights into the unique world of Plebe Summer.
The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families.
Grant Vermeer your host is the person who started it all. He is the founder of Academy Insider and the host of The Academy Insider podcast and the USNA Property Network Podcast. He was a recruited athlete which brought him to Annapolis where he was a four year member of the varsity basketball team. He was a cyber operations major and commissioned into the Cryptologic Warfare Community. He was stationed at Fort Meade and supported the Subsurface Direct Support mission.
He separated from the Navy in 2023 and now owns The Vermeer Group, a boutique residential real estate company that specializes in serving the United States Naval Academy community PCSing to California & Texas.
We are here to be your guide through the USNA experience.
What exactly is "gray space" and why does it have such a profound impact on a plebe's daily life? In this episode, we uncover the origins of this term, tracing it back to Excel spreadsheet color-coding, and explore its implications through firsthand accounts. Hear Troy share vivid memories of spontaneous training sessions and intense workouts that turned unplanned time slots into pivotal moments of Plebe Summer. Whether it leads to impromptu learning opportunities or strenuous physical challenges, gray space is a major factor in the plebe experience.
Rewind to the mid-90s with us as Rick and Troy recount their experiences with the notorious uniform races at the Naval Academy. Picture the chaos of rushing to change uniforms within tight deadlines, all while battling the sweltering Annapolis humidity and lack of air conditioning in Bancroft Hall. We delve into the consequences of wearing incorrect uniform components, the physical punishments that ensued, and how these training practices have evolved over the years. Despite the changes, the essence of rigorous discipline and structured routines remains a cornerstone of the Academy.
We also break down the cultural dynamics of Plebe Summer, focusing on terms like "on chit" and "chit surfer." These terms highlight how some midshipmen navigate medical limitations during physically demanding activities, sometimes earning them a playful label. The episode also tackles the mixed perceptions of "motivated plebes," those who bring contagious enthusiasm to their duties. Reflecting on our own journeys, we emphasize the importance of maintaining high standards and accountability, drawing inspiration from Theodore Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" to underline the value of active participation in overcoming challenges. Join us for an engaging narrative filled with personal stories, reflections, and insights into the unique world of Plebe Summer.
The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families.
Grant Vermeer your host is the person who started it all. He is the founder of Academy Insider and the host of The Academy Insider podcast and the USNA Property Network Podcast. He was a recruited athlete which brought him to Annapolis where he was a four year member of the varsity basketball team. He was a cyber operations major and commissioned into the Cryptologic Warfare Community. He was stationed at Fort Meade and supported the Subsurface Direct Support mission.
He separated from the Navy in 2023 and now owns The Vermeer Group, a boutique residential real estate company that specializes in serving the United States Naval Academy community PCSing to California & Texas.
We are here to be your guide through the USNA experience.
If you are interested in sponsoring the podcast, have an idea, question or topic you would like to see covered, reach out: podcast@academyinsider.com.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to Season 2 of the Academy Insider Podcast. Academy Insider is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that serves midshipmen, future midshipmen and their families. At its core, this podcast is designed to bring together a community of Naval Academy graduates and those affiliated with the United States Naval Academy in order to tell stories and provide a little bit of insight into what life at the Naval Academy is really like. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you so much for listening and reach out if you ever have any questions. The Academy Insider Podcast is sponsored by the Vermeer Group, a residential real estate company that serves the United States Naval Academy community and other select clientele in both California and Texas. If I can ever answer a real estate related question for you or connect you with a trusted Academy affiliated agent in the the market which you're in, please reach out to me directly at grantatthevermiergroupcom. You can also reach out to me on my LinkedIn page, grant Vermeer, and I'd be happy to respond to you there. Thank you so much, and now let's get back to the episode. Everyone welcome back.
Speaker 1:
Part three of the Plebe Summer Terminology. I thought I was going to be going through these lists quicker, but with the amount of stories that come up, this has just been so fun. So we're just going to continue the series. We're going along and we're following through with more and more terms from Plebe Summer that you will hear your son or daughter tell you about in stories. If you enjoy this, please, please, please, like, leave a review, subscribe. It tremendously helps out the channel. So that would mean the world to me. Thank you so much. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy this continued conversation between Troy, ricky and I. Thank you so much. Go, navy, beat Army.
Speaker 1:
All right, hey, everyone, and welcome back to part three of the Plebe Summer Terminology Series, joined again by my guy Troy, my big dog Rick, and we're going through and talking about plebe summer terminology. This past one had a heavy emphasis on chow calls, um, and everything that was going on, so we're going to jump back into a little bit more terminology and stuff in terms that you just may hear during plebe summer. So, rick, I'm going to start us off the term gray space. When we talk about gray space, what does that recollect for you? Was that a term when you were there and like get, get people to run down on gray space if you got it?
Speaker 3:
Honestly, again, this might be just selected memory or, uh, you know, traumatized. I do not remember gray space at all, unless there was, like some, some sort of ethical term, that like something on the fringe. But that's pure guess and speculation. Never heard it.
Speaker 1:
See, this is great and this is why I wanted people on the episode, because gray space is like that is. That is what plebe summer is. To us it is gray space, and I'm, and I'm solely convinced that this name came about with the development of computers and Excel spreadsheets. Right Cause, as a, as a plebe, I had no idea. Like we just heard Grayspace, like oh, what are we doing during Grayspace? What's all this Grayspace? Like I was like all right, well, that's just the name for it. I assumed it would. I'd always been that way until I became the reg commander.
Speaker 1:
A plebe summer, and we have a giant Excel spreadsheet about all of the evolutions in the plan of the day for all plebes right, every company, every platoon, a full schedule of what evolutions they have. And in that Excel spreadsheet, if you're going to the O course, it's colored. If you're going to leadership class, it's colored. If you're going to pep, it's colored. But what happens when you have no planned evolution? That's, that's gray space in the calendar. That's gray space in the calendar. And so that, and for us, like as we're talking about all these terms in the previous episode, about all the stuff that's happening in Bancroft Hall, that's happening during gray space, which is quite literally just means you don't have another planned evolution, so the detailers have full control over what they want to do in your training, right, and so that place is. That place is crazy. Troy, do you have any gray space stories that you remember? What was your detailers like, go to thing they would do like during gray space?
Speaker 2:
tailors like go-to thing they would do, like during gray space. So during gray space, the thing that they would give us the opportunity to earn, uh, like positive gray space time, um. But you know, mitchell mcduby, he was my first squad leader. He would say you know, you earn good things through winning um, you know every. If you're a winner, you, you get to have your space back. So he would either have he was a, he was a voracious reader, he, he loved, you know, the Roman empire history there. He also would always make sure that he had talking points from the current events for that day. So if we were able to talk in an educated fashion and, you know, sustain a discussion, he'd like you know what, okay, we get to learn something. Today. If you didn't read those current events or you didn't have somebody didn't have, somebody didn't have the ability to maintain a discussion about you know some civil war or a world war ii battle, or you know something along those lines, that gray space was getting eaten up by being dropped, um.
Speaker 2:
So I've got a great, you know not not a great memory, but a memory where we had a 45 minute block of gray space and we just did not as a collective, we did not prepare, um, you know, with any of the current events.
Speaker 2:
So we ended up getting burpied and pushed up to death um 45 minutes straight and we were just a sweating mess that the bulkheads were being hit and he would ask questions nope drop, and you were just cycling through it. Um, yeah, uh, time that we had was as a platoon leader, I had Lieutenant junior grade Petrovsky, um, and he was a former Marine and he had the exact same, you know, mentality. If you can give my current event uh, get my current event question right, we'll have positive gray space. So we got it right. And that's when he taught us how to shine shoes and he and he did fire shining and he also did the other way, and that was one of my favorite moments, because I still use his style of shining shoes to keep my shoes shine to this day. So gray space can be either or yeah.
Speaker 1:
Gray space. We didn't have that. Sorry go, rick.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I'd say the the gray space. That makes sense. We definitely had that. We did not call it gray space. I think if there was anything that we called it, it was a chance to earn your crap back.
Speaker 2:
The plebe detailers would steal our stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 3:
Like the one that they would always go after are the locks like the conch.
Speaker 1:
Ripping rifles, old locks, oh man.
Speaker 3:
If you leave that undone, what they did was they would take any lock unlocked or found. They would lock it to another cluster of locks yeah, and it would preclude you from having anything private. And so we had like this ball of like 12 different locks and anytime there was grace based, they would, they would, they would let you try to earn a chance back, and it was usually like a uniform race or push-ups Sneak preview. We rarely got the chance to get a shot at the locks and when we did, nobody ever got it out. So we just lived without locks for like two weeks.
Speaker 1:
You lived without locks. It's just a core memory, dude. There was nothing worse than walking out again. I don't know like what the worst like gray space memory was. But when you come back on deck this is a good term, all right, deck, actually, while we're, while we're on it, a deck is just navy. Speak for a floor, right, we talk about, um, you lived on, like, I lived on zero deck, because we start at zero, we start on zero deck, uh, which is like the first floor, and then you go up from there.
Speaker 1:
So, yeah, when someone says, hey, I live on third deck or yeah, I'm on second deck, they're just talking about the floor. They're just talking about the floor that they're on in Bancroft Hall. And then the specific building that you're in is the wing, the wing you're in. So like during my plebe summer I was in sixth wing, third deck, but during the academic year I was living in eighth wing on zero deck. So again, you hear these terms wing is like the specific part of Bancroft that you're in, and then the deck is the floor that you're on. But yeah, I mean what's crazy. Right, as you come back on, you just got done with the O course or the E course You're doing cool stuff and for the first time during police summer you're like that was pretty sweet, like I'm in a good mood, like that was cool, we did military stuff. And then you walk back up on a deck and you see a detailer sitting there with the locks in there or a rifle sitting there because someone didn't lock their rifle dude.
Speaker 3:
Oh, the sinking feeling, the sinking feeling of your reality. You get asked. You get asked the rhetorical question do you know what happens when insert the blank? And the answer is people die. And so if locks are lost, you forget your toothbrush, your socks folded poorly, you have soap scum. People are going to die, like attention to detail and the harsh consequences of lack thereof is drilled in your head, drilled into you.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, drilled into you. That's so funny.
Speaker 3:
And, as my wife can attest to, I still have troubles with those lessons, but I definitely incrementally learned some attention to detail in my time.
Speaker 1:
I love it, Rick. You use the term uniform race. You tell the people what a uniform race is, and then we're going to walk through and talk about all the different uniforms that you could wear during Cleve Summer. But let's start with what a uniform race is what the, what the uh, a uniform race is.
Speaker 3:
So it usually starts with this is a great gray space activity, earn your stuff back activity. But you would get the plebes to kind of gather up in the hall with the detailer, sometimes in a squad, sometimes in a gaggle, and then they'll just shout out a uniform and give you, you know, a prescribed time to go get in it. So you know, a minute, minute and a half. I don't ever really think that they even look at the clock. I think that they just wait and look and see that you're close and then just start chanting like 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Speaker 3:
But basically, you're supposed to get into the uniform ahead of the time and you know, newsflash, nobody, nobody makes it.
Speaker 3:
Everybody gets yelled at and uh, usually if you're, if you're lucky enough to be fast and get out first, you get granted the privilege to go front-leaning, rest and say we're waiting for our classmates and then they cycle through that and maybe like sometimes five, sometimes 15 different uniforms and, uh, the two things that are guaranteed in a uniform race is your closet's going to get completely screwed up because you've got all the stuff that's folded is now thrown everywhere, and the second is you are going to be doused with sweat because you're just stressed and you're wearing heavy clothes. I uniform races to this day like I, just not.
Speaker 2:
I hated uniform races and the worst part is when you would have the wrong component of a uniform. That either you tried to pre-stage a uniform and you didn't change it out, or something along those lines, but when you had the wrong part of the uniform, oh man, stand by, stand by to stand by and you are by.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's the worst part, because because then what happens right is you do a uniform race where you're sprinting back and forth, you're trying to change, you're hot and sweaty, the annapolis humidity you can feel it in bankrupt hall, so you're just dripping sweat. You go in there, you get back out, you're finally like breathing, you're like on the, on the bulkhead, and they're like they go and you realize like someone did it wrong, someone's not in the right uniform, and then immediately it's like get on your face.
Speaker 3:
Rick, what you got, I have to for my classmates I have to mention they would never let me live it down if I didn't mention this. So if anybody from the mighty class of 99 didn't have air conditioning this is for you. So when I talk about sweaty uniform races, one thing that I would mention as a key differentiator of the Naval Academy in the mid-90s as compared to modern-day Naval Academy zero air conditioning, oh man, and man the stones of.
Speaker 3:
Bancroft Hall would be like a pizza oven when it would get that. So when you mentioned Annapolis heat and humidity, I was like, oh my God, like Bancroft hall in August. Non air conditioning was something. Yeah, oh man, yep, yeah.
Speaker 1:
And, uh, it's just, it's, it's bad, and so you're just dripping sweat, like everyone's dripping sweat. But you're trying to change between uniforms, right, and I think that's the craziest part, because now you're taking off undershirts, you're putting on a white undershirt. You're taking off, you're putting on a blue undershirt. Well, for us, we were wearing the blueberries, right, it's going to be a different color now that they're wearing different camouflage uniforms. But same thing, right.
Speaker 1:
So you're going through 17 different shirts in a matter of an hour, right, and you can't put them on because you're all sticky and so you know you're always late, which, much to troy's point. Like I don't know that, like anyone actually counts, or maybe it's rich, point. No, no one actually counts, they just like. Once they sense you're close, you're like oh, you got 10. Because here's the thing about summer, which is also another insight right, like they cover the clocks, you don't get to know what time it is. Like you don't know what time it. When you're a plebe like you can't be. Like well, first of all, I'd never encourage you to be like sir, that wasn't the amount of time. But but like you don't, even you don't know, like you don't even know, and so, like you just have to believe them, you just have to trust them, and like that was always.
Speaker 2:
The worst part is your truth yeah, well, that yep straight up straight up.
Speaker 3:
We didn't do that. We didn't cover the clocks. That's, that's a new one. I like that.
Speaker 1:
That's uh pretty crazy, but yeah yeah, for us, for us, our clocks were, our clocks were covered and and our detailers kept a time bank. So this was this was like another fun 26 company thing. We kept the time bank. So like, if they gave you a time, hack, rick, like you're saying you guys have a minute 30 seconds to do a rack or a rack race or a uniform race you would go do it and if you came back in a minute 45, what they claimed, you're 15 seconds late. They're like, oh, I'm gonna get my 15 seconds back, so they go on the chalkboard in bankrupt all and they'd add 15 seconds to our time bank. Once that sucker hit an hour, we would just have a beat down session for an hour. Like that was like the oh man, they would take us to the squash courts and they would destroy us for an hour. They're like squash courts, we're gonna get our time back. We're gonna be late, we're gonna. We're gonna get our time back, don't you worry, we're gonna get our time back oh dude they ended
Speaker 2:
up after our plebe summer, they ended up disallowing going to the squash courts, right, I'm pretty sure uh, no, I, I think you still can.
Speaker 1:
There's just again. Everything's just become more heavily structured. There is a. There is a uh, quite literally an SOP of how your ITE and intensive training exercise goes right. So they have the full calisthenic layout of, like the format of how it would happen. Um, but you, you just have to again. Everything's just more regulated now. You just have to route a chit. You still get to beat them down. You just have to route a chit and let people know where you're going and when you're going to do it and how you're going to do it.
Speaker 1:
Right, yeah, exactly yeah, that's what I'll grab your torture Document it. I use this term chit. Hold on, we're going to cover this now. I just use the term called the chit. Hold on, we're going to cover this now. I just use the term called a chit. All right, troy, rick, whoever wants to cover it here, what's a chit? What's a chit?
Speaker 2:
In the military you have a bunch of different forms that you have to fill out. It's just the reality of being in a bureaucratic entity, and so your introduction to that is filling out chits, and a chit is a standardized piece of paper that says this is what I would like to do, this is when I would like to do it, and this is why and you have to make sure you route that through your chain of command. Routing means sending it up for approval, and once that's routed up through the chain of command and you get authorization, then you're good to execute. If you don't get approval, then that's when you have to go back to the drawing board and think about what you're doing, slash what you're asking for. So you've got leave chits. You've got liberty chits. You've got chits for different events You've got chits for all different sorts of things.
Speaker 1:
So you'll get used to chips and you also. You also have medical chips, Rick. You mind talking about, like, what a medical chip is?
Speaker 3:
Yeah. So, uh, if you do get the, the plea croup or hack, uh, cough and uh, you have to go to the medic, uh, or the corpsman or or or hospital point uh, you know they. For for those of you sending their kids there is medical attention. It is professionally staffed by clinically competent people but as the Coorsman or a doctor or a nurse sees the mid, they'll give them a chit for any sort of rest if they need to stay in bed or eat a different type of diet. Sometimes you'll see things like no shave chits, where if somebody gets an ingrown hair or sweat, they'll be allowed to like forego a shave until that heals. It's just, really just a documentation of you know, if there's something medically that requires you to heal or do something different, they put it on a piece of paper. So in case anybody asks, yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1:
That's that's the most like. Concise, straightforward definition of a chit is like it's just form of documentation of some kind of it's like it's paperwork. It's documentation of something that's going on, whether it's a request for approval, whether it's a doctor saying, hey, that's going on. Whether it's a request for approval, whether it's a doctor saying, hey, this person needs to do X, y or Z. Whatever the case is, that documentation is known as a chit, and so that's C-H-I-T. Charlie, hotel, india, tango a chit, and so that's a big one.
Speaker 1:
Now, in the context of plebe summer, there are people who who conspicuously, always seem to be on shit. So we talk about, like, when you're on shit, that means like you have an active shit for something. Uh, and a lot of times again, some people that you know. In my opinion, there's a difference between being hurt and being injured. It's not everyone feels that way, not everyone processes it the same way, and so there are a lot of people who who just happened to chronically be on shit. And so you know, such was born the term shit surfer, and so we might give it a laugh, you might give it a rundown of this term shit surfer and kind of you know what the connotation means as relation to if you are a shit surfer connotation means as relation to if you are a chit surfer.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, well, I mean, I think from a Naval Academy perspective, you often hear pain is weakness, living leaving the body, and so there's a uh definitely a culture of toughing it out. Uh, but for those that find themselves with the chit, it's limiting some sort of physical activity, usually running. I know shin splints tended to be the, the, the chip du jour, um, and some people really do genuinely get shin splints and genuinely need to heal them. Um, and for those of you that have experienced that, I don't mean to uh belittle that, that injury, but there are some uh, some meds that over the years that that take advantage of those situations and uh, maybe stretch a chip to uh get an extra day off for running, maybe get a little extra sleep, get a little extra food. You know you ride that shit and surf it to some little extra privilege Usually not running and sleeping, but anything taking advantage of a shit wise and I'm not knocking it, I think people do use it strategically.
Speaker 1:
But yes, there are people that take advantage of that. So an interesting point with that right is again, much to Rick's thing, as much as again, as much as we joke and we're having fun with this. If you are injured or you are sick, like yes, like you need to get, taken care of. Yeah, you need to get taken care of and being on shit is not being on.
Speaker 1:
shit is not inherently a bad thing, right. That's not like, oh man, I'm actually injured so I go on shit. Like people are going to see me bad, like that's not even sort of the case, right, and I want to be very clear about that. It just is. Some people, like Rick said, take advantage of it, because the only thing that can stop a detailer is the pen of a doctor. The pen of a doctor can get you out of anything dude.
Speaker 1:
And so if that doctor says, oh no, this person's sick, they need to be S I Q sick in quarters. You're going to hear this term S I Q sick in quarters. It means you get to stay in your room. So if the doctor there's a piece of paper on the front of the door, the doctor says this person is sick, they need to sleep, guess what that detailer doesn't get to go in there and wake them up and bring them out to pep in the morning. That that plebe just needs to sleep.
Speaker 3:
that plebe just needs to sleep, like eating dirt and licking the floor and getting all sorts of sickness.
Speaker 1:
So they get siq and get an extra day and so there were, there were some people again. There are people who literally get injured. Of course, this term chit surfer is again generally like, let's say, you, you're kind of milking something going on and you're getting out of all the physical.
Speaker 1:
You're getting out of all the physically difficult aspects of plebe summer. You're getting out of everything. That's where this term chit surfer comes along, because they're kind of surfing their way through plebe summer by by staying on chit, by staying on chit. So that's that's where this term chit surfer has come about. Obviously, again, I want to be very clear, as we have lighthearted conversations if you are genuinely injured and genuinely sick, you need to go see the doctor and get taken care of, point blank period, and there's no negative stigma associated with that in the slightest. This is just lighthearted conversation about some friends and peers that we have witnessed who have definitely taken advantage of the system to have a nice day, to have a nice day at least during plebe summer. Nice week, oh man, all right, but someone who wouldn't be SIQ or go on shit is someone who's extra motivated you want to use the term motivated in the military, someone who's just really motivated. Joe, what are we talking about? What are we talking about?
Like you're, you're bringing the energy. You are bringing the energy. Um, you are somebody who you know is ripe and ready to to get going in the morning. You're ripe and ready to to get pep. You know you're, you're, you're trying. That's the real thing. You're trying hard. Um, that's physical, that's mental, that's communal. You are engaging, you are trying, you are providing answers. You're trying on your rates. That person is always going to be called a motivated plebe and in the military we talk about somebody who's weak. It becomes a joke after a while. Like you're motivated, and it's almost a negative statement once you actually get into the academic year. But like the whole concept of academic motivation is that you are trying really hard.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, the baseline. The baseline is good, right Like. The baseline is like someone who's motivated, as, someone who's taking it seriously, someone who's going above and beyond doing all these things. You'll hear a lot of times, like during the academic year, when's there is a a baseline level of pessimism, uh, and sarcasm that just exists in naval academy culture, right, like if someone goes and does something above and beyond.
Speaker 1:
Or like does something? Does something like that they didn't even need to do. Like you'll get. You'll get a sarcastic like hey, motivate me dude. Like motivate me shit, mate. Like okay, like all right, yeah, no, don't motivate me shit mate Like okay. Like all right, yeah, no, no, motivate me dude.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it's just a shit, mate. And again, it's not to say that people aren't encouraged to do well. It's not to say that people aren't encouraged to excel academically or anything along those lines. There is a fine line between doing well and, like that, academic year motivate me it's like you are doing too much.
Speaker 2:
When somebody exclaims that in the academic year, that means that you are. You're either building somebody out by doing that level of effort building out, that's a, that's a throwback, pushing somebody down or like you're doing an unnecessary amount of work. That's not the expectation, or you're making other people look bad by virtue of doing things that aren't necessary. So that's the key you want to find that healthy balance.
Speaker 3:
One thing that I'll say, and I've appreciated it more as the years gone by.
Speaker 3:
I would say I was pretty run-of-the-mill midshipman but I probably was on the more laid-back side. I wouldn't call myself a dirtbag, but you know I was. I was always on the kind of quieter side of mediocre, and you know I was never too locked on and never too lax, um, but you know, I think a lot of the motivated people would drive me crazy, for everything that you articulated makes others look bad. It's annoying, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 3:
And I don't think I really had an appreciation for the Joes and the motivated people at the time when I was a midshipman, but I think through my company mates and classmates, people that I knew were more motivated and drove me crazy as a midshipman. I think some people are just high accountability, high energy people, yeah, and so seeing those, some of those people, they get out of the Naval Academy and they get in the real world and they translate that accountability and energy into their military career or their life and I actually I think I've had a new appreciation for some of the people like that and I was of many makes it there.
Speaker 3:
I was probably the most critical and harsh on that sort of attitude, but now that I look back on it there were some really great people that were motivated mids and I think some of it was just they have a high standard of life.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely. That's a great point, Grant, did they ever say or Ricky as well, did they ever say that everybody at the Naval Academy is a type A personality when they come in? That?
Speaker 2:
was that they hit us on the head with that, but it is very true. Like most of the time, the Academy process, the admissions process, it's bringing in people who have excelled over the course of their lives and your classmates are likely going to be phenomenal people. So you have to bridge that gap. As Rick said, of appreciating the Joes in your classroom, those folks who are highly motivated but also have a high standard of performance academically, physically. You know the folks who are on the soups list, high standard of performance for academically physically. You know the folks who are on the soups list. Um, make sure you lean into them and figure out like, okay, are they doing too much or is this just who they are? Um, because those are the type of people that you want to surround yourself with, not just because they excel, but also because they make you better as a human being 100% Right, I think that's the.
Speaker 3:
Sometimes looking worse made me want to be better, and though I didn't like it at the time, it probably did some good for me.
Speaker 1:
Oh yeah, yeah, 100%. And you know, it's funny again when you're in the context of the Naval Academy. Right, this is just, this is meant to be just like a peer inside into the midshipman experience. Right, like, yeah, yeah, we do. We tease people who are extremely high performers and extremely high strung and really focused, really motivated, really into it.
Speaker 1:
There's a level of sarcasm that goes into it but, like both these gentlemen have said, genuinely normally, the people who you would consider a Joe or highly motivated intent, like an immense level of respect that goes to those people because, like, the level of consistency you have to have in, like the core of who you are, to show up every day that way, like as you get separated from the Academy, like there is an immense level of respect that goes to those people Cause, like that's just how they're built and they do it and they have such a high level of discipline, discipline to continue it every day, that, like it, it grows right and it continues and they, they end up being extremely successful in whatever they do and uh, so, yeah, it's just, but, but it's a fun insight because the amount of times like you would go and be like yo, hey, motivate me, dude, hey, whoa, whoa, like, look at this guy, look at this guy, okay, yeah, no, all right yeah, motivate me one of the words that we had on there, one of the most important rates in my mind, and everybody has their own one that was man of the arena.
Speaker 2:
You have, you had that on the list, um, which is a quotation pulled from theodore roosevelt president, theodore roosevelt um, from his book citizenship of a republic. But it it makes me think about that man in the arena. That is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done him better. The credit belongs to the man who was actually in the arena. And, at the end of the day, each and every one of us have to motivate, each of us to recognize that we can point fingers and call people out for being exceptional all day. But that's what you came to the academy for, um, and whether you hit it and you hit the ground running in Cleve summer, whether it takes third class year when you start your major classes, or maybe it takes you to get out into the fleet, because you are the anchorman, um, and it didn't really hit for you until you had the weight of being an officer on you, um, and recognize that those things that you're learning at the academy.
Speaker 2:
they all come full circle, whether you're in your life as a father, within your life as a husband, within your life as an officer, or you're getting out and you're in citizenship or government, as the mission says. So don't be surprised when those classmates that were Joes when they're doing well, because there's a formula to this, so don't be surprised by it.
Speaker 1:
You feeling motivated, Rick? Did that get you going there a little bit?
Speaker 3:
It did get me going. I feel really proud and I only say that because I was very counter to that as a midshipman and I definitely feel, like you know, everybody come. That was a really good point, that everybody comes to the Naval Academy at a different point. You know that you've got some people that are bringing fleet experience. You have some people that did a few years of college or went to NAPS. Some people are just mature than others. Some people come from really big towns, really small towns.
Speaker 3:
Everybody's hitting it differently and then you kind of get away from the Naval Academy and you see a lot more commonality than not. And then you look back at those clashes and differences and it really does genuinely be the thing. It's the thing that you end up laughing about and telling stories For all the people that I cursed and you know, under my breath, muttered bad things because their room was cleaner than mine or they were up earlier than me. Um, you know now, now we look back and you know those homecomings over a beer um, you're laughing about that stuff and it's, it's one of the best things about the Naval Academy 100%.
Speaker 1:
Well, with that on the, on the sentimental end, which I, which I absolutely love, I and I think it's it's almost the perfect reflection and what you guys just said, like the ending of this episode is the perfect reflection of that is as much as we joke about it, as much as we look back on it with humor and like a certain level of perspective, there's a certain level of uh, of seriousness, right, that, like that comes with it and appreciation and like a general uh, like gratefulness for the whole experience, right, and everything that you take from the Academy is going to help set you up for success, everything here and all these crazy things and all these funny stories, like when you make it out and you hit the fleet and you do these things, like you're saying, troy, the, the weight of being an officer, the weight of you know, generally being responsible for the care and leadership of the young men and women who have decided to enlist and serve the country. Right, like that you feel it right and you get there and everything starts to come full circle and so it's fun to reflect on it with with jokes and lightheartedness. But everything that these gentlemen have stated is just like it's the sentiment of it. In a moment's flip of the switch you can like turn it on and be appreciative of it and see, like the importance of it, right, and so, um, it's an amazing thing, and so both you guys like this has been so fun doing this with you too.
Speaker 1:
Um, if you guys are down in the future, I'd love to continue this going. Um, but for at least for right now, we finished a bunch of uh, you know, part three of the police Summer Terminology Series and we'll do our best to keep these going to keep you informed and educated and just get a little bit of insight into some of the terminology and uniqueness of the Naval Academy experience. So I hope you enjoyed listening, troy Rick, thank you both so much and for everyone listening, I hope you have a great day.
Speaker 3:
Good luck 28. Get after it.
Speaker 1:
There you go. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Academy Insider Podcast. I really hope you liked it, enjoyed it and learned something during this time. If you did, please feel free to like and subscribe or leave a comment about the episode. We really appreciate to hear your feedback about everything and continue to make Academy Insider an amazing service that guides, serves and supports midshipmen, future midshipmen and their families. Thank you.
