Today’s training schedule was busy as all get out. This also marks the last training day for any graded events which lifts a huge weight off all our shoulders. Tuesday and Wednesday are filled with nongraded briefs, graduation practice, and the professional dinner. Here is how today went.

The morning started at 0450 (read: way too early!) with my alarm blaring and tempting me to turn it off for another half an hour. But I really couldn’t since I had to be over at the school house at 0540 to form up for a 3/4 mile run to the PFT area. Only in the Marines will you form up for a run to a place 3/4 of mile away for a physical fitness test. Some folks need it to get warmed up for the run. Others, like me, don’t really see the point. The PFT went off without a hitch and I got a decent enough score which counts as 5% of my final grade.

After a bit of time for showering and getting in uniform, we had our final exam. All of our tests except for one have been open book. Some folks scoff at the idea but the point behind it is being able to find the information you’re looking for. There is no way on earth to memorize everything that goes into my job. Everything changes so quickly that you’ll always be trying to memorize new stuff. It is a much better idea to just know where you need to look for the most up to date information. All that aside, I scored a 98 on the test. Woohoo! That test counted for 15% of my final grade.

I meant to write about this past Friday’s adventure in class over the weekend, but the post managed to slip my brain housing group. Friday we had to give a fifteen minute presentation (hours of death by PowerPoint!) over a topic taught at the school. It sounds pretty easy, but it is far from it. I didn’t have that hard of time getting everything ready, but the butterflies decided it would be a great time to dace in my stomach once I got up in front of my group. I have to tell you, that 15 minutes FLIES by. I got in the groove at about the two minute mark and just sailed through the rest. I did very well and scored a 93.

In all, 35% of my final grade has taken place over the last two training days. I’ve been dreading these two days since the first week not because I was worried about not doing well, but because it just adds lots of stress to an already stressful time. Now that today is over, I breathe a huge sigh of relief in knowing that I will walk across the stage in less than three days time and hop on a jet plane for home.

“I’m leavin, on a jet plane!”