Heather Stewart Poetry

One of the early lessons was that each thing is a step to the next thing, just a step. None of it can be done all at once. Step carefully, but know that this step is not everything that this is. The realization came in boot camp. It was just 8 weeks, fun in some respects but no way to live long term. Some people get caught up in the idea that this is how the military works but it isn’t. It isn’t long term possible. It’s close to how deployment is, but not exactly.

There’s a reason the term “boot camp” is applied to so many things, though. It condenses all the hard things to a short, intense, controlled environment, that makes learning dangerous things as safe as humanly possible. In the Navy, it may gives a certain impression about how much of life is about drills or swimming. It’s really important to know that everyone can swim if the worst should happen, but there isn’t exactly a lot of swimming that is mandatory for all after that. Some jobs still do, but most don’t. But we spend A LOT of time in the pool. At least we did when I was coming through.

It’s interesting how even this experience changes over time. Boot camp for me wasn’t the same as boot camp for the people who came in the decade before me and it certainly isn’t the same now. Studies suggest changes, changes are fruitful or not. Society, expectations, and generations change. Changes are fruitful or not. Regardless of the iteration one attends, boot camp is just meant to be a stepping stone. It prepares us for what’s to come. Kind of a kindergarten for the career.

Smooth is the stone upon the path we take
The easier to slip on, to find impassable

It is only the end when you make it so
See the path, not the stone
The path lay ahead of it
Ahead of us
I’ll crawl just to keep us moving