So far this semester, I have been really disappointed with my courses as a whole. I really haven't enjoyed being a student at Virginia Tech, and with the addition of some pretty horrible professors, and a few classes that I would rather do without, it has been pushing me towards really considering a way of getting away from Virginia Tech earlier than the end of this semester.

There really has never been a time in my life where I ever really wanted to go to college. My whole reasoning behind wanting to go to college was for training to be an officer in the US Army. That is the reason why I have wanted to go to West Point my entire life. I have never really been interested in going to college to earn a degree, but here I am, at a civilian school studying Engineering. Both of those, I am now realizing, were a mistake. My reasons for going to Virginia Tech to study engineering were very thin. Most people in engineering here wanted to come here because of VT's good engineering program and wanted to have that degree when they graduate and look for a job as an engineer. I'm in the Galileo program for engineers, and every one of them wants to do some sort of engineering job where they are designing or creating something new in a particular field of engineering. I am the only one who has no interest in ever having an engineering job. I am also the only one who had made the decision to leave Virginia Tech even before I came here. I knew that the engineering program at VT was very good and well known, and I was sure that it would help me secure a nomination to West Point. So, my reasons for coming here was so that I could leave here as soon as possible.

The first semester, I enjoyed a lot of the freedoms associated with being a college student. The friends I made certainly made most of my time enjoyable, which made me be able accept the fact that I would have to be a student at VT for this year. After the first semester was over, I wasn't sure that I would be able to take another semester because I really didn't enjoy the environment. It just wasn't what I was looking for in a school. My entire life, I looked forward to being at an all military school preparing to be an officer while taking classes to earn a degree. Now that this semester has started, I have realized that I couldn't stay at Virginia Tech, even if something were to happen where I couldn't attend West Point after the conclusion of this semester. The problem remains that no civilian schools offer what I am looking for in a school.

I guess I will just have to push my way through this second semester and see how everything turns out. If I am fully accepted to West Point, then everything will work out great. If not, then I am sure that I will not be staying here. If that is the case, then I think that I may go onto active duty in the US Army and reapply to West Point. My recruiter has an 18X spot open for active duty, which is a Special Forces direct enlistment option. Basically, I would go to a separate basic training and AIT before leaving for airborne and air assault schools and being able to try and pass the Special Forces Assessment and Selection Course. Though, I am very confident that I will receive an appointment to West Point, this other route is a realistic possibility for me. If I am accepted to West Point, then I want to major in Engineering Management (which really isn't an engineering degree because it isn't at all technical, but it's more of a systems management degree) and earn a degree with a Military Art and Science Area of Study and minor in Arabic. This is like double majoring and minoring. But what I do know for sure is that I will not be coming back to Virginia Tech after this semester.