Spring 2013 - Manlius Pebble Hill School

Can you speak a bit about therelationships you formed withyour fellow cadets?The discipline and regimentation atManlius was difficult and uncomfortablefor everyone, but we were allexperiencing the same things. Goingthrough difficult circumstances togetherforms extremely strong, lifelong bonds.Is there anything else you’d liketo add about your time spent atManlius?The Manlius School had excellentprofessors and coaches. The classes weresmall so you could always get extraattention if needed. Outside of the bondsI formed with my fellow cadets, mymemories of the professors and coachesare some of my fondest.Photo taken in the Kreitzberg Family Alumni Lodge.Emily Bierut ’12,MPH Graduate –Virginia Military Institute CadetWhat does your typical dayconsist of?The alarm goes off at 0600, I get up andshut it off for the room, and we all getup. All four of us have to get dressed, rollup our hays and stack our racks. We callthe thin mattresses we sleep on hays, andthe wooden cots, racks. Then we have toclean the room. The sink, mirror andfloor are cleaned every day and the trashis taken out. Then we each check ourown wall lockers, then leave to go to ourdykes’ rooms. (A dyke is a term for asenior cadet who mentors new students.)I put up my dyke’s rack. Then I go toBRC (breakfast roll call formation) at0655. The formation is called to attentionat 0700, and we all come to attentionand salute as reveille is played and theflags go up. After that, we all marchdown to the mess hall in formation toeat. As a rat (a term for freshmenstudents) I eat with my cadre, so whenthey are done, so are we. The rats formup in a platoon outside the mess hallafter breakfast and march back tobarracks. Once we are dismissed, I goback to my dyke’s room and do the samechores in her room I did in mine. UsuallyI only have to do one thing because myco-dykes will do the others. A co-dykeis another rat in your dyke room. By thispoint it is about 0745, and I head offto class.I go back to my dyke’s room at noon toput her rack back down. It is an upperclassprivilege to have your rack down atnoon. Rats are not allowed to put theirracks down until 2300 (11 p.m.). Onceher rack is down, one or more of thethree dykes in the room will take the ratsdown to lunch. We can eat normally withthem, and when we are with them wedon’t have to walk the ratline, and wecan talk outside. After lunch I go back toclass for the afternoon. There is almostalways something happening at 1600(4 p.m.) for rats. Today we have paradepractice for the inaugural parade onMonday. We are dismissed from whateveris happening by 1800 (6 p.m.) in orderto get ready for SRC (supper roll callformation). We form up for SRC at 1900,and since it gets dark early now, the flagscome down earlier so we just form upand march down. We eat dinner withcadre and then they march us back tobarracks. Once we are dismissed, the restof the night is ours to study. Taps isplayed at 2330 sharp every night, whichis lights out for rats.What was the most difficult partof life at VMI to adjust to?The hardest part for me was the yellingduring Hell Week. I will never, everforget meeting cadre for the first time.They yell at the smallest things, and wehad to ask permission for everything.We couldn’t scratch an itch, adjust auniform, or move your eyes withoutpermission. It was also hard for me tounderstand that they were not yelling atme personally, they were yelling at RatBierut. It was all constructive, just in theharshest way possible.Why did you choose VMI?I honestly can’t remember why exactly Ichose VMI. I liked the rigor, the disciplineand the prestige. During Hell Week, I hadno idea what I was thinking, and howcould I have made such a mistake.Gradually though, as time went on andclasses started, things changed. VMI juststarted to make sense to me. The rules,the uniforms, and the restrictions becamesecond nature. I think I came because itseemed like a cool thing to do, but whathas really kept me here is that now Iknow it is not only cool and challenging,but worthwhile as well.What is the dress code?There is no dress code, we have differentuniforms for different things. We are notallowed to have any civilian clothes at anytime, and we are told what uniform towear when. It makes getting dressed inthe morning really easy but I miss mysweat pants, and real pajamas. We sleepin the shorts and t-shirts that we wereissued as gym clothes.MPH REFLECTIONS 2013 15