<p>The thing about basic is this: understand that you are "Worthless", and just accpet it. You will get treated like you are dirt. If you let them mess with your head, you will have a very hard time. If you just laugh (not outloud, of course) about it, then it isn't all that bad.</p>
<p>Classes aren't per say harder, as they are different. Teachers no longer "spoon-feed" what you need to know. Its your responsibility to learn the material and ask quesitons. And NEVER be scared of EI (extra instruction), which is where you schedule one-on-one time with the teacher. They are VERY helpful. But don't expect to be perfect. I had all A's in HS, and have received D's and such on some tests.</p>
<p>I only know one guy from MMI. He did alright. It kind of depends on the person as far as academics go. For BCT, he did know his stuff, which helped. Just make sure you are in shape for BCT.</p>
<p>that means DON'T LET THE B******* GET YOU DOWN. it is very tru. a lot of crap goes on, so you just have to put up wiht it and finds ways to make fun.</p>
<p>I always go through training with the closest I can get to a smile without getting yelled at...it really irritates the upperclassmen. Keep a good attitude and work ethic and even if you really struggle physically or mentally, you'll earn respect and get through it.</p>
<p>No swim test early. You take swimming sophomore year, if you have trouble they drop you to basic swimming then back to the normal swimming class.</p>
<p>Oh man... keeping your bearing is going to be one of the hardest things ever. I remember the cadre doing the, "DIE, SMILE, DIE!!!!!!" thing to me... and the rest of my flight. That never helped. What I did sometimes was I either bit my tongue REALLLLY hard or I pictured one of the worst moments during Basic before that moment to put myself in a bad mood. Sounds retarded, but it worked.</p>
<p>Yes. Sing the air force song in your head. I kid you not, I broke everyone, basics and cadre, in bearing. I often have trouble holding in a smile now! But, when I want, I stone wall them. So, ya, that's my trick. </p>
<p>If anyone isn't familiar with the water bearing game, here's a good story. My friend and I had a face off in Jack's where we each had a mouth (puffed out full) of water and stood a couple inches apart in a stare down. At the same time everyone (our classmates) are around us trying to get us to laugh. So, after a few minutes of my friend barely holding on, he cracks and spits a warm mouthful of water on me.</p>
<p>if you really really don't want to laugh, think about someone you hate (usually a cadre works) and think about them. you can get ticked off and not smile.</p>
<p>otherwise, laugh every once in a while when you're in your room. and not during basic cause they're teaching you discipline, but during the year, smile while you're getting beat. that REALLY gets to upperclassmen, but it makes it so much more fun</p>
<p>There are drill instructor's, but they are mainly in an advisory role to the cadre. Your cadre will be in charge 99.9% of the time. We had one TI from Lackland for Barbarians, had the whole TI southern/louisiana accent. Awesome man! Also had creases that could slit your throat.</p>
<p>I just practiced going from idiotic grin to absolutely no expression in about 0.2 seconds. If you can relax all the muscles in your face, you can go from laughing to super-stract very quickly.</p>
<p>I just focused on whatever was directly in front of me...whether that was the sky or the nose of the Cadre yelling at me.</p>
<p>For me, the Assault and the Obstacle courses were the most difficult things just due to the shear exhaustion. I was also in the hospital late the night before the assault course which just killed me.</p>
<p>For me, the hardest part was not getting down mentally. Our second beast cadre were night and day. One day, we were the best thing since sliced bread. The next day (when the other set of cadre showed up), we were absolute failures. You could literally see our flight deflate when the latter cadre showed up.</p>
<p>Also, A-course...
It is exhausting, and I strained my knee on the first run-through.</p>