#jclc

There's a JROTC summer camp called JCLC, which stands for JROTC Cadet Leadership Challenge. Only 15 cadets can go, and you have to be chosen for it. I was!! I was supposed to go last year, but it was cancelled because of bad weather (gulp... tornado). It's five days, and everyone who has been has said it is simultaneously the best and worst five days of their lives. It's in May, so it's hot as hell. And every single day, we do the following activities:

Water survival (pool): Self and buddy rescue techniques. Learning how to swim (a surprising amount of people don't know how!). Practice for water survival competition. From what I've heard, it involves things like grabbing weights from the bottom of the pool and swimming back up with them

Waterfront (lake): Canoe/kayak. Stand-up paddleboard. Apparently you have to fall out of your canoe so it flips over. Then you have to get it on top of someone else's canoe to get all the water out of it. Then you have to flip it back over and get yourself back in it with your partner.

Survival skills: Psychology of survival. Building a fire and shelter. How to make a signal and find water. Identifying venomous snakes, spiders, and plants.

Wilderness first aid: Stop the blood. Expedient litter (a stretcher, I'm assuming we're making one?). I've been told you literally have to bandage your friends and yourself up lol

Orienteering: Reading a compass and pace count. Compass course. Basically navigation

Commander's time: STEM. Recreational activities (Fishing, frisbee, etc)

Shooting sports: Air rifle. Archery. Tomohawk throw (ax throwing)

COPE (Challenging Outdoor Physical Experience): Leadership reaction course. High course. Rappelling tower. Pamper tower. Zipline. Flying Squirrel. I'm most excited for this one!! I've been told that you have to climb to the told of a 50 ft tall telephone pole then jump off to hit a suspended volleyball (you're strapped into a rope ofc!). Also, the flying squirrel? Yeah, you're attached to a pulley system. You're on one end, your team is on the other end. You literally RUN OFF OF A CLIFF and your team pulls you up and you go flying back and into the air!!!

So yeah. All of that. Every. Single. Day.

I might be cooked... BUT ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS IS COMING WITH ME!! SO IT'S GONNA BE AMAZING! Everyone who's went has said it's one of those things where when you're there, you think 'oh god why did I sign up for this?' but then you leave and think 'I wanna go back'

ANYWAY. We do a LOT of walking, so I have to really train and break in my new OCP boots. That means I am no longer allowing myself to wear any other shoes than my boots. And yeah, it's gonna suck T.T And once I'm two or three weeks out, water ONLY to prepare myself (I'm gonna need a lot of self control)

A couple things

1. Thank y’all for all your care and worries about me with the Brian thing. I have some asks about him that I haven’t answered just because I’m exhausted, but I do appreciate them and I have read them

As I approach JCLC 2018, here’s a few photos in review of last year’s JCLC at Fort AP Hill, VA.

Being a black shirt was the best I could have asked for. Cadet First Sergeant of Charlie, 135 strong. The spirit was infectious and the sense of family was more than I could have ever desired. It was an experience like none other and I would not trade it for anything.

If you have an opportunity to be cadre of any organization that leads you up to big numbers of cadets - do it. Lead a large formation. The volume of their response in cadence will shake the earth.