This afternoon, I stopped by Annapolis Mall on my way home from a dog show in Pennsylvania. Over and over, my eye was caught by bright white uniforms ~ in them, members of the Naval Academy Class of 2018 (their name tags informed me of that reality). It got kind of comical, as SO many of them were there… and all with their parents. What struck me most was that I swear, nearly all of them were female. I stopped one family on the way to my car and asked if it was required that today the entire class visit the mall. :-) A young woman from Houston, TX told me that this was the first time they’d been allowed out like this since they matriculated. I asked when they’d come to school. She replied: “July 1st.” Whoa! I became a teacher in part because I got a few months off during the summer. These plebes went practically from high school graduation to the Academy. And every, single one of them looked so proud and happy. Never mind the beaming smiles on the faces of their parents (its Parents Weekend). I asked that same girl about the prevalence of females at the mall. I wondered if the new class at Annapolis were 50% female… Or, rather, the 51% that apparently females occupy in the population. She gave me an interesting, and sensible, answer: “They attempt to replicate the number of women serving in the Navy. That’s about 26%. Our class is 25%. Thats close.” Her dad, a 30-year veteran Navy aviator, told me how extraordinary that number really is, given the Navy of his day. All of this made me smile somewhere deep inside me. My dad and my stepdad were both Navy men. (My dad said that one of the reasons he’d chosen the Navy in WW II was because he’d at least be sure of a clean bunk every night. ;-) ) These young women are just starting their lives, and they’re starting them in very special company. According to a few websites I searched, fewer than 8% of applicants are accepted to the Naval Academy. Although their costs are nearly all covered, they come knowing they’re offering at least five years of their post-graduate life to their country. Included in that service is their faith, their self-discipline, their duty... and, of course, possibly even their lives. I met one young man and six young women today. Odds are that not all of them will live to me my age. Maybe not even half. Each one I met gave me literal goosebumps. Theyre special people, and certainly among the best our secondary schools have to offer. Watching them there in their uniforms smiling with their parents and friends were moments I doubt I’ll ever forget. We are so blessed to live in this country. Whatever our political stripe, we should remember that we are Americans first. Everything else should be secondary to that. Oh… and I think I may have figured out the disproportionate number of female to male at the mall today. Macys was having a big sale.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 23:49:49 +0000
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