Writing Wrongs

June 14, 2006




You are Ocean Blue



You're both warm and practical. You're very driven, but you're also very well rounded.

You tend to see both sides to every issue, and people consider you a natural diplomat.

What Color Blue Are You?

It was a toss up between �freedom fighter� and �famous novelist,� let me tell you. You can guess which one I picked.

What�s funny is I�ve often been called diplomatic. Back when I was trying to get a three-year ROTC scholarship, I need a couple letters of recommendation. You could make an appointment with a dean of your college for a conversation, and then based on that, he or she would write a letter, generally speaking.

I went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Also know as the Berkeley of the Midwest. Think polarization, not unlike today. Think of an environment where the majority believes military = all things bad. Think of a dean who would love to see ROTC removed from the campus.

This is, of course, the dean I�m set to interview with.

Nice.

And of course he asked me what I wanted to join ROTC/Army. I have no recollection of what I said; I think it�s one of those traumatic experiences your mind blocks for the sake of your sanity. I think I may have been answering and brainstorming the option of making a trip back home to get a high school teacher to write a letter for me. In any event, I made it through and then we sat there, staring at each other.

After one of those long, pregnant pauses, he said, �Wow. Have you thought of foreign service, because that was really diplomatic.�

And he wrote me a letter.

A really nice one. And I used it as part of my scholarship packet. When I faced the nine-officer review board and they asked me why I wanted to join the Army, I think I used the same answer.

And for the life of me, I can�t remember what it was.

Charity Tahmaseb wrote at 11:02 a.m.

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