Pride: the Rambling

Forgive me, I know this is going to go in a million directions. That's okay, I'm human and I can do that. After all, this is really meant for my dad first and everyone else a distant second.

People look at me funny, when I sing cadence as loud as I can. The SDCs and instructors seem the only people who appreciate a gal in the front with tennies, belting it out as she tries to march along. Me? I do it as a release, for when else do we get to sound off like that? Well, during morning quarters when Chief asks to hear our war-cry. But who really sounds off then?

No one. Except me. I'm a bit perverse. I also tend to...how to describe this? Alright...

In school, when we get off a break and the teacher's not back yet, we stand outside our classroom in ranks. It's very impolite to break ranks, you know, so the "proper" thing to do is ask permission before you cut through between the leaders and the rest of the class. Most people just say "Break?" or even "Break." as they cut through. Me, I like to say it out. "Request permission to break ranks?" It gets me odd looks, sometimes.

Maybe part of it has something to do with what my mother told me before boot camp--look at it as a role-play. A loooong term LARP (live-action roleplay), wherein I play a sailor. One who does things right and knows where she's going.

I don't, really.

Maybe another part is my not-so-secret love of rituals and ceremony. I like requesting to come aboard when I cross the quarterdeck. I like saying the Sailor's Creed both in quarters on the ship and at the beginning of class. Turnover fascinates me, how one duty section's leaders pass the burden to another's. The secret handshakes shared.

I'm not going to say I love everything. Morning quarters at 0530 does not make me a happy camper. They wonder why so many kids pass out--well, gee, packing the whole ship into the lounge, standing for half an hour, so hot and tired and not really giving us time to do more than grab-and-go for chow? Yeah.

But that said? I'm happier than a lot of people here. Maybe because I choose to be. Even though it's rainy and school's hard and my feet are science experiments. I can still be a smooth sailor, and a squared-away one.