<p>Just a random question: When did you all first realize that the Academy was the place for you?</p>
<p>I remember promising friends and teachers in 7th grade that I was going to go to USAFA, and a good portion of them didn’t think it would happen. They didn’t think I could do it. Kinda funny, actually.</p>
<p>I was about 9 or 10 years old. Starting prepping then to get in. ;) worked, i'd say.</p>
<p>sophomore year of highschool. My counselor was like, "uhh maybe you should look at other schools first."</p>
<p>Showed Her ;)</p>
<p>hmm...when i was 11, i decided i wanted to go to annapolis after visiting campus.
then i "grew up" and realized (about 10th grade) that usafa was the place for me! :)</p>
<p>not until the second i opened my acceptance did i believe it actually happened. actually, i still sometimes wonder that this is real. love it!</p>
<p>Summer Seminar. I had a pretty good idea that USAFA would be a good place for me, but didn't know until then. By the end of "doolie for a day," I absolutely knew.</p>
<p>I knew from about 5 that I wanted something to do with the military, about 7 I decided something with the Air Force (in 3 generations so far, my family has 144 years of service mainly with the MN Air National Guard), I was looking into EOD aggressively until about my10th grade year, I had a friend who was applying to USAFA (med disqual for supposed Asthma, he says he never had it and still is fighting it even for ROTC) and I guess I just looked into a commissioned path and thought the Academy would be the best for me. I know I've still got a way to go but Summer Seminar sealed the deal for where I want to be because it felt like even in that short amount of time we were working towards a common goal and the comraderie of Doolie for a Day in my element made it feel like it would be worth it every step of the way.</p>
<p>End 8th grade where all my friends were going to prestigious private prep schools and I was going to a public school with a 30 percent graduation rate. I told the principle I wanted to go to the Academy and he told me try to get into high school first. I fought to get into a better school which I did, one of the best. I told everyone I wanted to get into the academy and everyone tried to talk me out of it. It took my whole freshman year of high school to be put into my honors program. I realized that I wanted to join the military and I wanted to be a good leader. I wanted to be an officer. The most challenging way to become an officer is through the Academy. I know a few cadets at the Academy and I just fell in love with it. When I went to go visit the Academy during July before my junior year I fell in love with it even more. How I truely found out that the Academy was for me is when I went to the Naval Academy Summer Seminar. I loved everything about it, so I knew that I wanted in. I had a lot of fun. I still got a long way to go though, a long way to go. Might take me a year or two but ill make it.</p>
<p>sometime between the end of sophomore year and the beginning of junior year</p>
<p>Ha. Still waiting on that one... But trust me, this place is amazing and the opportunities it affords are second to none.</p>
<p>Middle of junior year... pretty late, I know.</p>
<p>
i still sometimes wonder that this is real. love it!
</p>
<p>My sentiments exactly! Every so often I just stop and think, "Wow, I'm at the Air Force Academy, I can't believe it!" And I smile. :) Those are good days!</p>
<p>I decided military in 8th grade, Air Force in 9th, Academy in 10th. I went on a tour during spring break and loved it. I went to Summer Seminar and it sealed the deal. I had one of those feelings where I knew it was where I was supposed to be and it's where I would end up. This was the only school I applied to!</p>
<p>In 3rd grade I brought an Army enlistment brochure to my mom and told her this is what I wanna do. I don't remember that, but that's what she tells me. I have always wanted to join the military, at first it was airborne, then it was flying birds for the Army. Then I started flying fixed wings, and I knew I wanted to fly something just a little faster than a Cessna 172. Always knew about the academy's, I though I wanted to enlist. Went to Academy day at Lakehurst NAS held by my senators my sophomore year. Learned a lot, watched the videos, and really liked the idea. Visited my junior year and was immediately hooked. I was only there for a day but I loved it. </p>
<p>Now I am waiting very patiently ; ) and hopefully I'll get in, but if not I will re-apply next year :D</p>
<p>one of my friends mentioned something about it after cross country last year, around the start of October, so i started looking into everything and fell head over heels in love with USAFA. It was really neat because I have always been really patriotic but was never sure if the military was for me, so I prayed about if this was the right thing to do or not. And not a week later I just started to feel like this was exactly what I was supposed to do. Shortly thereafter little coincidences started occurring that further pointed me there.</p>