<p>are things like personal journals allowed during beast? or will literally EVERYTHING we don’t need to physically exist be taken away during beast?</p>
<p>aviator I think the only personal item you can count on is the religious text of your choosing bible, etc.</p>
<p>It'd be easy enough to keep one among your letters, but you probably won't have the time or energy to do it. It's going to come down to a choice between sleep or writing, which is a battle that sleep almost always wins.</p>
<p>It would be kinda cool if you did that. Then you could "publish" it for new applicants to look at and see what it is like.</p>
<p>undercover: here's a hint for you which i did</p>
<p>i decided to keep a little record of my thoughts and feelings each day through letters home. before i left, i pre-addressed envelopes home complete with stamps and my return address for little cards i had. then at night, i would take 3 or 4 min to quickly write out anything that stuck out over the day and how i felt. my parents kept the letters, and now i have records of what i thought about each day.</p>
<p>i also pre-addressed some envelopes to friends, and my parents pre-addressed ones to me and gave them to my friends, which was rly nice</p>
<p>okay, thanks eagle</p>
<p>how does sending the mail work? does it just go back in our box or isthere somewhere seperate where we stick it? is there alloted time for this?</p>
<p>You just give outgoing mail to your cadre and they'll take care of it for you. </p>
<p>There isn't really alloted time for writing letters, unfortunetly. You'll have an hour or two of free time on Sunday, which is also your time for church services if you choose to go. Other than that, you'll have to write secretly after Taps, which is always fun. ;)</p>
<p>and it will go out when your cadre make it. there would be times my parents would get three letters the postmarked the same day cause the cadre held it to send it out for w/e reason</p>
<p>I brought my Bible and a prayer journal with me to basic. And yes, I actually wrote in it, mostly during first BCT when I probably should have been sleeping. But it's still awesome to look back and read over some of my thoughts and prayers during basic... I say bring it, it can't hurt. :)</p>
<p>will do readhead-thanks a lot :)!</p>