You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy.™
How some people say the future of this country is doomed.
Too often we hear that the youth of America isn’t up to the challenge. They’re too lazy. They’re too fat. They’re too pampered. They’re too stupid. They’re too fill in the blank.
If you only watch the Jersey Shore you might just slit your wrist thinking that this is all there is. The Situation? Please. Snookie? Give me a break.
If you spend your entire day on Facebook, you might just think that America is destined to degenerate into one drunken orgy in a cloudy hot tub filled with morons who speak in incomplete sentences and show no respect for the flag.
I might have thought that too, that is until I spoke with my daughter tonight.
Over a pizza and ice cream, she spoke of her recent trip to Annapolis.
For 90 minutes she bubbled like a coffee pot of patriotism.
She spoke of her week at the Navy summer session in which she and 750 candidates went through a mini hell week to see if they have the right stuff.
She talked about what it was like to be part of something so honorable, so storied, so important.
She talked about being woken up at 4:30 am with midshipmen banging garbage cans. She talked about running everywhere and turning 90-degree corners and saluting everyone she saw. She talked about doing push ups in the surf and running obstacle courses and carrying a zodiac boat on her back.
She spoke about a mock assassination where she was chosen by her Delta Company mates to put a ketchup sandwich on a midshipman’s shoes under the lunch table without him knowing.
She did it. The Delta unit, which she now calls her 2nd family, cheered in unison.
She talked about wanting to fly jets and landing on air craft carriers and serving her country. She talked about her tiny stature being a benefit in the cockpit.
More blood in the trunk, more G’s, less apt to black out she says.
That sounds like pilot talking doesn’t it?
She talked about a paltry 1,200 kids getting accepted to the Naval Academy out of more than 22,000 candidates who applied last year.
She says less people are accepted to Annapolis than Harvard. She says Harvard will be one of her back up schools. She says Stanford and the University San Diego are also on that back up list.
That’s like saying you want to hang a Picasso in the living room, but if you can’t you’d be willing to hang the Monet in the pantry.
Huh? Harvard a back up school? Who even says that?
I look at her and marvel. She is beaming. Her wolf eyes are bright blue. Her smile is brighter than a light house. She seems so energized, so excited about the future. Somewhere behind her an American flag must be waving.
What if you don’t get jets I ask.
I’ll get jets she responds with the steely eyed determination of a safe cracker.
But what if you don’t I say pushing her on the issue.
Then I want to be a core man she says without blinking an eye.
A core man? What’s that?
They’re like medics who go behind enemy lines and pull our injured troops back to safety she says.
That’s what you want to do I ask
I want jets, but if i don’t get jets that’s what i want to do she says.
She is grizzled and filled with resolve. The word No doesn’t exist. She is a modern day Columbus and the future must be explored. Her face is determined with an “I don’t care if the world is flat, I must find out ” kind of look.
She is going to conquer the world.
I ask if the Naval Academy is like any college when it comes to academics.
Kind of she says, except everyone graduates with an engineering degree.
I went to USC and I didn’t graduate with an engineering degree.
Everyone I ask.
Everyone she says.
Maybe I’ll be an aerospace engineer, she says. That’s pretty hard.
But then again, maybe I’ll just coast and be a civil engineer.
Coast? Civil engineer? Is the Naval Academy really this bad ass?
I think so.
Maybe I will work on an aircraft carrier or a submarine, she says.
What about the air force or the army, I ask.
I wouldn’t go even if I got in, she says.
It’s not the Navy. I want the Navy.
She is determined, steadfast.
This is the future of our country. A young woman who wants to fly jets or pull injured soldiers to safety. She bleeds red white and blue. She wants to serve her nation and be respectful to a country that is the greatest in the world.
My daughter talks about being voted Delta Company’s most outstanding candidate.
Out of 750 summer session candidates, only 2 girls will be recognized. Only 2 women win an award. She is one.
She is a diamond on the stage of life. But what’s encouraging, to me? There are 750 other diamonds with her, shining just as brightly.
Sure the future is uncertain and the new world comes with a lot of question marks. There are tons of kids who would rather lay on the couch and text their friends.
But the next time you hear someone say this generation doesn’t have what it takes.
Remember this story. Tell that person, “I beg to differ.”
I would say this generation is going to be great and lead us to places that we need to go.
I’m proud of these kids and my daughter. The future is blindingly bright.
And that is crazy.™