Camp SLO 2013!! :)

It is that time of year again! Every year all the LAUSD JROTC schools go to camp San Luis Obispo towards the end of the year! It is an exciting event that all cadets look forward to and all cadets HOPE they get picked to go, only 15 cadets are chosen annually, so it is very tough! It's a great place to go and meet new people from the other schools and it's a great experience. We stay there for 5 days and by the end of those 5 days no one wants to go home because they don't want to leave all those great people they met and they don't want to leave this great experiences behind.

When we arrive we go through the basic drills and we are told the rules we must follow and we get to go outside with our school and just hang out and mingle with the other schools. The real fun starts on the second day! We wake up before the sun even rises and go eat breakfast at the mess hall before we start our activities for the day. The activity scheduled for us that first day is the obstacle course. It's about half a mile long and you must do monkey bars, run through tires, crawl under things, jump a 10 foot wall, run through more tires, climb up another wall, drag yourself across a rope, crawl through a barrel, run through MORE tires and you are finished with the obstacle course once you run that half mile back to where you started and complete however many pushups they tell you to do! It's very tiring and you do that about another 3 times and you call it a day. Lol 

On the second day we are scheduled to go to our math and science classes where we do a little simple math and build little toy cars and race them. Building a toy car out of one battery and strings is actually harder than it may sound!. Lol After our class is the much anticipated DANCE! Wooooo that's always a lot of fun! :)

The third day we get to go to the rappelling site. We march a couple miles to get up there but the walk does us well. When e get to the rappelling site we start making harnesses and start swinging across ropes and exercise a little more lol but our turn finally comes up to go to the big cliff! The mountain we rappel down is about 70 feet tall and it is very scary going down but it's a lot of fun! It's a great experience and although here are many people that are reluctant in doing it, they participate anyways. Lol

That closes up our camp experience and the next day we're on our way back home :( Everyone always seems to enjoy themselves and that's always the important part but we'll see how it turns out this year Lol

I'll see you all when I get back! Lol Until next time :)

-Cassie :)

Blood Drive!! :)

Our annual JROTC blood drive is coming up on February 13, 2013 and we're working with the Red Cross this year!! Everyone who is 16 years or older is welcomed to come and donate blood! By donating 1 pint of blood you can save a life! Needles can be very scary and believe me I know but don't you want to be able to say you were able to save a life just by donating blood!
Come and support the JROTC program! Not only will you receive a free shirt but there will be FREE food! :)
Come donate and save a life!!

Cassie :)

Finals!!

Finals have started here at Monroe H.S. and everyone is ready for them to be over already! For seniors this is our last horah and I know that although testing has just started we are more than ready to get it over with! Once these finals are over we will be one step closer to freedom! Lol
Leaving high school will be a bitter sweet moment for me due to the fact that I have gotten so involved in JROTC but I will also be happy to be starting a new chapter in my life.
Graduation here we come!! :)
-Cassie

16 years All-City Champs!!

The Viking Battalion did it again!
I am proud to say that I am a part of the 16 years All-City champs at James Monroe High School in the Viking Battalion! I am the 16th Battalion Commander to keep the British United Service Club (BUSC) shield here at JMHS! It was something my team and myself worked very hard to accomplish. We stuck through all the long hours of practice for a reason and that reason was to win for the 16th time. It was a difficult process but we accomplished it just as the past years teams accomplished it. I had my friends stand by my side the day of the competition and the day the results were read and I cannot be more thankful to them. I am proud of my battalion and every single person who competed that stressful day.
Seniors we did it!! Class of 2013!
-C/LTC Cassandra A. Araujo