The application to the Naval Academy is unlike any other “regular” college you apply for. My application process started in January of my junior year of high school. My preliminary application was my application to The United States Naval Academy Summer Seminar. I headed off to NASS at the end of March/beginning of April. I went there and did my CFA (Candidate Fitness Assessment.) When I got home, I started working on my real application. This long and tedious process seemed to drag on for months… And it did. I was met with plenty of roadblocks along the way that I had to get over one at a time. They included having the wrong English and math teachers write my recommendation letters, my appointed Blue and Gold officer going on a three month vacation, and a lot of medical referrals ending with a medical disqualification from the DoDMERB (Department of Defense Medical Exam Review Board) . Even though some of these setbacks caused me to be angry, yell, hit my punching bag, and even cry a tear or two (or twenty,) it all worked out and I met some great people along the way.
The Congressional Nomination process is a whole other monster. I applied for three nominations: my two state senators and my district representative. I got emails from all three saying that I had been offered interviews. I was stoked– this seemed to be my first big step towards an appointment. My first interview was with people from Senator Debbie Stabenow. I went to a really, really, really fancy hotel and sat in a room while waiting for my turn. Even though I saw some kids I recognized from Boys State, I was still freaking out. (It also didn’t help that I saw one of my interviewers carrying a pistol in his waist band.) The next day I went to a local university and did my interview with people representing Senator Gary Peters. I was not as anxious this time around until I walked into the interview room. Before my Dad and I left the house that morning he said we did not have to iron my shirt because I will have my suit coat on and it won’t be that big of a deal. The first thing the interviewers say to me is “take off your jacket, get comfortable.” In my head I was saying to myself “Oh crap, the one thing I was told not to do.” My third and final interview was two weeks later with Representative Mike Bishop. I was most confident about this one and I was very relaxed going in. I was asked the hardest questions at this interview. I was asked “If you were given an order to launch a nuke, but you thought it was illegal, would you launch it?” Right after I answered, they asked me if I knew about the My Lai Massacre (look it up.) They said that one of the soldiers being tried for murder used the defense that he was just following orders. The interviewer asked me what I thought about this as a defense. Thinking back on this, both questions didn’t really have good answers– they were probably just testing to see how I worked under pressure.
A month later I got a letter from Debbie Stabenow saying that I did not get a nomination. A few days later I got a letter from Mike Bishop saying that I did get a nomination and then a month or so later I got a letter from Gary Peters saying that I got a nomination. Everyone was super excited for me but I knew the process was far from over. Awhile later I got an email saying that I received a letter of assurance, which means if everything else on my application passes, I have an offer of appointment waiting for me. I was just waiting on my medical to clear. I got an email that lead to me finding out that I was medically disqualified because of some heart condition I may or may not have. I was pissed. I looked into the waiver process and then a week or so later got an email saying that a medical waiver had been granted. I got my official offer of appointment sitting in AP Calc one day via email. I was calm about it and texted a picture to Lauren. (I’ve been told she started crying in AP English.) I was officially in and couldn’t be happier. For about 3 weeks after that, this was extent of most conversations I had:
Person: “Hey Sam, congrats on the Naval Academy! That’s huge!”
Me: “Thank you, I can not wait to start.”
Podunk Relationship 