Don't Stop, Don't Drop.

A friend of a friend of mine recently published this article on her blog, looking back at her experiences running cross country. There are a couple of things that jumped out at me in reading this especially in the context of me training my replacement for next year and the passing on of the Guidon which will take place this weekend. There is an exclusiveness that is a healthy part of an organization's structure and promotes higher performance, and that exclusiveness and performance must be matched with humility and a servant's heart.
For those of you who are not in the Corps, the Guidon is the unit flag which represents the standards, the history, and the goals of the unit, not unlike the Eagle of the Roman Legions. The guidon bearer is chosen each year in a process know as Guidon Candidacy, a two-three week period in which freshmen carry mock guidons during increased physical training and take part in a variety of leadership development and stress evaluation exercises. When I was a fish, the most daunting part of Guidon training was the high port runs, in which we carried our flags over our heads for 2-4 mile runs. As we fell out for our first high port run, the current Guidon bearer formed us up and said "I have one piece of advice for you when it comes to high porting, don't stop, and don't drop."
That piece of advice has gotten me a long way over the last few years. Don't stop trying, working, or giving and don't drop your standards, your morals, or yourself.
In the article, the author talks about the atmosphere that her cross country coach created, in part by talking about what made them different from the rest of the school. We do this a lot in the Corps, and it is apart of creating excellence in whatever organization we are apart of. This exclusiveness, this concept of us being separate and somehow better than them fosters a healthy pride in the organization and a drive to live up to the high standards that form our identity as separate from theirs. In the Corps, one of the forms this takes is attendance at Silver Taps and Echo Taps, where we remember and pay homage to the memory of Aggies and Cadets who have passed away. We pride ourselves on attending these events in mass because these ceremonies separate us from those who are not Aggies, those who are not Cadets.
This all by itself creates merely pride and snobbery. But there is a difference between the pride of a Marine and the pride of, say, a career politician. The second believe he has risen above the rest, is wiser and better than everyone else and is thus entitled to whatever its politicians are entitled to. The first, in contrast, knows that he has been trained beyond what most others have, knows that he is stronger and tougher than most others, but he knows also that that all the training and preparation has taken place so that he can serve others.
The author of the article talks a lot about helping others and focusing on what we can do for them. My junior year in the Corps one of my jobs was to conduct physical training tests for several units. The final event of the test was a mile and half timed run. At nearly every single test, the leaders of the outfit would come sailing in well under the time limit, wait for a few seconds to catch their breath, turn around and run back onto the track, reappearing a few minutes later running in with the slower fish who struggled to meet the time limit. They did not stand at the finish line beating their chests or bragging about their speed, they quietly used their gifts to motivate and encourage others.

That is why we must push ourselves, why we must work to develop ourselves and those around us, so that we may give back to others.
"Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working withhis hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." Ephesians 4:28



Note: After my sophomore year, highporting was banned in the Corps and cadets are no longer allowed to conduct highport runs.