The Air Force Academy is a very special place, similar to West Point, the Naval Academy, and the Coast Guard Academy in many ways. One thing we all share is all the rules...sometimes we have so many that we don’t even remember all of them. It is a crazy thought but true. Some rules are far worse to break than others though, and those rules tend to get you put on probation if you are caught breaking them. Students at civilian institutions will never quite understand what it means to be a cadet in bad standing.

Let’s back up a bit to get a better understanding of how cadets get put on probation. What rules do you have to break to be put on probation? Well there are many options to chose from and I would recommend none of them (unless you are willing to deal with the consequences of getting caught). A huge rule that the Academy has lies within our honor code, “We will not lie, steal, or cheat nor tolerate among us anyone who does.”

On our first day of being accepted into the cadet wing we take this oath together and we take it very seriously. It is even written on one of our marble walls. Then there are an assortment of other rules that can lead to serious punishment such as alcohol related incidents. Some of the incidents include underage drinking, public intoxication, condoning underage drinking, etc. Most students at civilian institutions have trouble relating to this because drinking is a common practice at parties or other events and rarely see any punishment afterwards. Then there are rules that are special to the Academy that you can’t really see anywhere else. One of these rules is about stealing our class crest. No one is supposed to do it, yet every year someone does because it is a tradition and it’s a tradition that our superiors want to end. They want to end this for good reason, I suppose, since it costs quite a bit of money to fix the crest and put it back on the class wall.

These probations entail a lot of frustrations and hardships for cadets. You can lose all types of privileges that cadets often take for granted such as, your civilian clothing, your car, your ability to leave the cadet area or base without sending up paperwork, you have to write journals, march tours, sit confinements, and work in Mitchell Hall. This is only some of the punishments cadets could receive. Some get more while others get less. It all depends on your chain of command their recommendations about your fate. It sounds serious because it feels it to anyone who goes through it. There are times when disenrollment is a possibility and that is a sad and scary time for everyone involved.

This may sound all bad and hopeless but for many people probation is an opportunity to learn and grow from mistakes they have made. Not only is it an opportunity but it is a choice that people have. They can choose the way the probation can affect them. It is tough to go through but so much counseling happens during probation to help rehabilitate cadets and get them to a better point. It is a chance to really look at yourself in the mirror and confront the faults that you see. Not many people get that opportunity in life. We get it and have the support to help see what it really means. Growth is something we constantly fear because we often have to confront our demons to do that. The Academy does probation right. It may not work for everyone though. In order for this difficult process to work, a person needs to have two things: 1. a significant event that affects them on a personal level and 2. they are willing to learn from their mistakes and accept them as mistakes.

Going through things like this are hard, but it is much easier when there is support helping you through it. Everyone makes mistakes and probation is just a way to learn from it and move forward. Probation is something I have personally experienced here and it was one of the most difficult experiences I have ever had. I started off being upset with the system and the people that put me on probation but I soon realized that that was not what I needed to do. I had to forgive myself for a mistake I made. It was really just a choice though. I chose to break a rule and once I accepted that it was so much easier to start moving forward. I got the opportunity to interact with many people within my chain of command that I probably never would have interacted with otherwise. And even though it was not always for good reasons that I was there, I got to build relationships with these people so they could continue to help mentor me throughout my time as a cadet and in my future as an officer. I had to interact with people who lost all faith in my abilities based on the choices that I made. I had to work towards rebuilding those relationships. Every step I had to take was difficult and took a lot of work. It affected every area of cadet life for me. But looking back now, I am so glad I went through everything I did. As a Firstie (senior), I have experienced so much that has helped me to be a more successful leader. I have an ability to relate to those that struggle here that not everyone gets. I learned so much about myself and found so much happiness that I did not even know that I was missing out on all because I struggled here. The struggles we go through as people can define us in two ways, they can be the stepping stone into a better life or a hole that we fall in because we are not ready to pull ourselves back up. We all make choices in life. Some of these choices have great consequences while others are painful. We have to learn to live with our choices and find a way to grow because of them.