Monday Meanderings – Page 2

Cool Ray

Published March 9, 2026

If you read my last post, you might remember that my regular glasses were resting somewhere at the bottom of Santee Basin on the Severn River. That left me with one option: the prescription sunglasses my mother had dropped off so I could see. Now, wearing sunglasses in uniform may not sound like a big deal. But at the Naval Academy in 1977, it absolutely was. I was the only person in the Yard wearing…

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Man Overboard

Published March 2, 2026

There are times in your life when you don’t want any attention. You want to keep your head down, your nose clean, and your name out of the public eye. Plebe Summer at the United States Naval Academy was one of those times. Attention meant correction. Correction meant public scrutiny. Public scrutiny meant some calibrated blend of humiliation and demerits. The safest strategy was invisibility. If I could have faded into the granite and brick…

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Open Doors

Published February 23, 2026

One woman’s lived history in the second wave at the Naval Academy One of the strangest reflections for me now, as a mother and after decades of working with teens and college students, is remembering that, in those early years at the Naval Academy, plebe doors had to remain open at all times.All times.Even at night.Some of my women classmates remember being issued nightgowns. I only remember sleeping in a T-shirt and gym shorts, knowing…

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Induction Day, Continued

Published February 9, 2026

Twelve Hours That Changed Everything It is astounding how much change occurs in less than 12 hours. Induction Day had only just begun. Within an hour of reporting, we were already in formation, learning basic marching commands, dressed in the simplest version of a Naval Academy uniform: a USNA T-shirt and a Dixie cup. A complete uniform issue followed quickly, and with it the unmistakable sense that whatever we had been before was being set…

Induction Day

Published February 2, 2026

I walked in knowing exactly where I was going.I just didn’t know what I was doing. Inside Halsey Field House, Induction Day began with an unsettling calm. Everything looked orderly, almost polite. The ferocious part was waiting its turn. Rows of folding tables stretched across the floor, aligned alphabetically by last name. I found A and stepped up to a table. The upperclassman behind it didn’t smile or look at me for long. “Plebe Andrews,”…

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A Seed Grows

Published September 8, 2025

I am currently a student at the Renovaré Institute, a two-year online and in-person school dedicated to learning how to live in deeper intimacy with God. The program blends academic study with practical exercises aimed to shape us to become more like Christ. In August, our practice was to pray the “Jesus Prayer”, an early Christian prayer dating back to the 6th century. The invocation of Jesus’ name began even earlier, and the “Jesus Prayer” has…

Category: Monday Meanderings