Guidon Candidacy

Now that the fish class is an official part of the outfit, we are doing some new things. First, as stated before, we have junior priviliges for the week. That's going really well. It's quite relaxing to be able to walk in the hallway. That being said, we're still at the bottom of the pole, and we still have training meals and stuff like that where we have to act like fish. We were given a nice little framed certificate that we have completed outfit brass, and the brass itself. Outfit brass is virtually indistinguishable from Corps brass, with one exception. The brass in question is a crossed sword and fasces (if you don't know what that is, ask your ancient history teacher) under a shield with a helmet. The difference is that when the brass is on your collar (your left side, or the right side when someone is facing you) the helmet on Corps brass faces towards your back, and the helmet on the outfit brass faces forward. I may at some point take pictures to illustrate the point.

The really big thing we're doing now is Guidon candidacy. The guidon is the flag that is at the front of each outfit during a march-in or Corps run. Typically, when you watch a march-in, it will be the smallest flag held by an outfit. To be the guidon bearer is a position that holds much respect. It means that you have been determined to be the most capable of representing your outift in terms of physical fitness and other qualifications determined by the outfit. Right now, to earn the guidon, we are doing the most demanding exercises we have ever done. Currently, whenever we go running, we have to high-port (hold over our heads) a broom. Whenever we do pushups, we hold the broom upright with one arm and do pushups with the other. In case you're wondering, it's nigh impossible unless you're really good at pushups. I'm not. The person who will be guidon bearer should be announced at parent's weekend. I'm pretty sure (within one or two people) who will get to take guidon.

In the meantime, everything's fairly relaxed here. My only difficulty right now is reminding myself to study, now that the nine hours of personal study time has been reduced to five. I did, however, get a 95 on my last Political Science test. I'm pretty pumped about that. We get to take a day off of formation for every A we get in a three-hour course.