Leadership, part 2

I’ve found that inspiration and enthusiasm for my groups mission has come foremost from situations where we were broken down together and forced to work together, like on freshmen Pride Nights. The emphasis is on the word together. I think we lost the group feelings of togetherness from New Cadet Week. Actually, we didn’t really know each other then, so it was kind of shallow, I suppose. We grated a lot over the course of Red Phase however. Maybe these were the growing pains, as we were forced to combine the “individuals” beyond the level of marching in step, this mismatched jigsaw puzzle squeezed into the form of a TC. I think this is also a difficulty of maintaining a training environment within a university like ours. When we are busy, we work without thinking too much. No time to contemplate all the drama which has ensued within our TC. Group spirit, I think, is harder to create the deeper it must run. Certainly we all feel the rush of thousands of people in sync at our home football games, but how deep is this bond? We yell with these people, and then we go home. Here, we are restrained to our dorms more than other college students. When others are having lunch with that person they met in class, we are returning to the dorm to sign ROs. When civilians have late night gatherings to unwind from the stresses of academia, we are restricted to our dorms with our TC, or asleep. Forget Big Brother and reality television where different peoples are forced to live under one roof; take a look at a day in TC 1-1.