Candidate Fitness Assesment.

Well, that went pretty badly.

I started off pretty nervous. Butterflies in my stomache, cold hands, all of it. Once I started I was okay, and after the first basketball throw I just felt humiliated.

I used my school shoes. These are black sneakers, but not meant for anything too ambitious. The soles are extremely slippery, but they get a decent grip at my school´s gym. I didn´t take the test at my school´s gym.

The gym had a waxed wood floor.

The agility/speed test was ridiculous. I had to start skidding about a yard from the end line to slide in, and even then fell to my knees at least twice. Trying to return was even worse. I was running in place for the first few steps before I could even begin moving forward. I asked if I could run barefoot the second time, but they wouldn't let me.

I know I can't do pull -ups. I did the flexed arm hang, but that was less than mediocre, at 33 seconds.

Push ups were bad. I can do 20 in a row pretty easily, rest in push up position, then start doing 5, rest, 5 rest, for a bit more. Unfortunately, I'm used to turning my elbows out. I get my elbows to the full 90 degree angle, but at a 90 degree angle from my body, as well. My hands are straight forward, so this in probably bad for my wrists. They made me keep my elbows close to my body. I made 11, realized I couldn't do any more, as just stopped. At a 1:20, I just go so discouraged I asked the testers to mark it incomplete. I may have been able to hang on a bit longer, by I was just too depressed to try by then. That was definitely the most disappointing performance of all, I wasn´t aware that I could give up like that.

I ran the mile in the rain. I heard it in the gym, and rain on a tin roof is a relaxing, sleepy sound, so I ignored it. Then at the 30 minute mark realized I would have to run in that. The puddles were half-way to ankle deep. That sounds shallow, but not when you're kicking up water into your face. I'm badly out of shape, and ran a 9 minute mile. The last 20 yards were nice, though. It's that moment when you run as fast as you can and don't feel anything, but you can tell your legs are stretching out and see your arms swing longer and longer until you're going all out. Then you walk another lap to cool down and really feel miserable.

As a final note: 2 minutes actually is a pretty long rest period. Enough to catch your breath.

I missed three hours worth of physics to take the test. I feel bad about that.

Arm strength is the main problem here. Only a few weeks ago I learned to serve a volleyball and actually get it across a net. That's more technique than strength, but it illustrates the point.

I listened to Dylan's Series of Dreams repeatedly when I finished. Have you ever realized you were dreaming and knew that if you just pulled in the right direction you would wake up? I felt like I was in that dreaming stage but couldn't pull myself out quite right. Here's a song that usually makes me feel better after something's gone wrong: Aerosmith's Amazing. Just listen to the lyrics.

Amazing-Aerosmith

I have to turn these in soon for early acceptance, which is what most people who are accepted to. That would do more harm than good, I´m better off retaking it in a month or two.

Bright side: Cornell has an excellent ROTC program, and is a great school for engineering.