Ask for help if you really need it, I’m not saying not to. But you were accepted here because someone at the DMA thought you would be good cadets. This will be the hardest year of your life so far. They won’t let you down if they know what’s good for them. Trust your instinct and trust your recruit brothers. As the first females here, you’re going to challenge their beliefs about who is strong enough to survive. I’d like to think they got weeded out during their Worm year, but in reality I know it’s not true. But just like every other family, we’ve got black sheep. Be careful who you trust: You’re part of the DMA family now.You’re part of the DMA now and you’ve got to follow our rules-or you won’t last. It may not make sense now, but you’ve got rites of passage to go through, just like we all did. You can’t talk about yourself in the first person. The rules are here for a reason: As Worms, you aren’t allowed to talk or be friends with upper-classmen.(This is more a life lesson than a DMA lesson-if you say you’ll do something, do it, no matter what.) When you’re struggling on the obstacle course, when you don’t think you can do one more push-up, when you want to sleep through morning formation, remember why you’re here and let that fuel you on.

Never give up: You committed to this program for a reason.Everyone here has gone through what you’re about to go through. When you feel down or ready to quit, lean on your fellow Alpha Company Worms and let them carry some of the burden. Your company is your family-lean on them: What you’re about to do isn’t easy.But for now, here are the things that have gotten me through. We’ll deal with those things as they come because there’s no way to plan for them. I know we’ll face things this year that we can’t predict, especially with the first five female cadets ever. But if you can survive the year, you’ll be among a small, proud group of cadets who will do anything for each other. Over this school year you’ll average 5 hours of sleep a night, 100 push-ups a day, and more yelling than you can stand. I just don’t like all the extra paperwork.

I would have said yes to this if they’d made me wear a dress all year to give orders. If I’d known commanding the first ever company of female cadets at the DMA was going to come with all this extra paperwork I would have said no.

She actually got Drill – the one good boy in Sam’s life, and the one we all will swoon over to share some of his Survival Tips for Girls enrolling the Military Academy! Drill Sergeant Stamm’s Tips for Surviving Denmark Military Academy Did you read my post yesterday about how freaking much I loved Rites of Passage? This book was so amazing, that I’m so thrilled to have Joy here today with a very special post! Today I have something super special for you.

Rites of passage joy hensley