Hard Work

Today class rankings were released, and now more than ever these are important. My branching in the Army, which I will submit next week, are based entirely on order of merit so first come first serve. I think when I was a lowly plebe my rank was somewhere in the 800s or 900s (out of 1250 at the time). Today I received my rank as of right now...312 (out of 1,060). So HUGE improvement. What this means is that I will defnitely get my first preference for jobs and will also likely be the first to get it. This will be important this winter when we choose our first duty station because this too is done based on rank.

I am really excited, I cannot adequately articulate the stress, pain, and work that I have put forth to get this far. It feels so good to start getting rewards for all of my hard work. Branching will be just one more step closer to graduation, I can't believe how soon it is coming. People always say, West Point is a great place to be from but not to be at...I can't wait to just be from here!

Like Allison mentioned, she is coming out twice in October! Man she is a champion for being so awesome and willing to fly so far to see me. I just ran a rough calculation in my head, and I think that on weekends alone, we have spent $3,000 thus far! Now, that is a lot of money! We could have used that to buy a sweet used car, 2 new iMacs, 10 ipods, or for 60% of our annual contribution to a roth IRA. However, IT WAS AND IS SO WORTH IT!!! Those flights and weekends are largely what got us here! We have spent so much money to be together, often for really short weekends where we are almost on an airplane as long as we are together. But we now have each other, we are in love, and we are going to get married in the temple in 8 months! I can't put a price on that, this investment truly will have a greater return than any material or financial goal could. If Allison and I continue to love and honor each other, we will be able to spend eternity together.

Surely more factors came into this besides those weekends, but they really have made a huge difference in keeping us together. I am so excited to see Allison in 2 weeks when she comes out. Life apart sucks! I love Allison, and I am so fortunate to have her in my life. Life is good.

Dallin