I can quite honestly say that White Phase in the Corps of Cadets has been freakin awesome! We have earned so many privileges that just make life so much easier. And most of them are little things that regular people never really took the time to appreciate. I am now allowed to cut across the hallway in my residence hall, I can put stuff in my pockets, I’m allowed to grow my hair out to ¼” on top and 1/8” on the sides, I can work out in civilian clothes, and get this, I’m allowed to carry my backpack… on my back! I don’t have room inspections every day either. I only get graded on my room about twice a week now. But the best part is that on Fridays and weekends they let us go out and actually have fun. However, we’re not allowed to be by ourselves. We either have U-Pass, where we have to go everywhere with our entire TC of 29 people, or we have P-Pass, where split into 2 groups and go out, but we can’t leave our group. Last week we actually got to go into Christiansburg for the 1^st time and watch Taken 2, and we’ve been able to go to the breakzone and just chill and play games. I’m proud to say I’m getting pretty good at bowling. I actually got over a 100 for the 1^st time in my life. We also go out on the drillfield and play football a lot.

                As cadets we weren’t allowed to go home over fall break, but we still had a pretty good time. We had a Pass In Review in recognition of the graduating class of 1962. We had the chance to talk with alumni who graduated from the Corps all those years ago and hear all of their stories of what the Corps was like back then or about their life after graduation as commissioned officers. We got to march in the homecoming parade and went to the football game against Duke, which turned out to be epic after making a comeback from Duke’s 20 point lead.

                This weekend is going to be awesome too because it’s parents weekend. I am totally not afraid to admit that I miss my mom and dad. I can’t wait to see them, my older sister, my godparents, and cousin. I have not seen them in over 2 months; I can’t even imagine how hard it must be to be deployed and entire continents away from your loved ones, not seeing them for periods of over a year. Having a weekend away from the Corps will be amazing. I’ll actually get to sleep in a bed for the 1^st time since I got here (in the corps we sleep on top of our beds so we don’t have to make them every morning).