I did it!!!!! Although the old saying goes �it's not over till it's over� the only thing stopping me now is death or... well... death. I passed all my finals.
This has been the most stress filled week at depot (and my life so far). Starting on Monday, the troop got split up. Half the troop had final detachments and the other half had panels. I was on the half that had to do final detachments. Unfortunately for me I am in the middle of the troop alphabetically. That meant that I was last for final detachments and Panels. Just to drag out the stress. All our training came down to this week. If we didn�t do well on these tests then we would get a U and have to re-do. Then we would try again. One more U and home we go home. After 21 weeks. Yuck. Not me. Obviously I can�t describe what went on during final detachments or panels but suffice it to say stress x10. On Tuesday it was my turn for panels. I had to go into the room with the long table and CAPRA the crap out of two questions in front of a �panel� of three members. Each question took about � an hour for me to complete. At the end of the hour they sent me outside the room to �sweat� and ponder my doom while they decided my fate. Then they called me back in and told me that I had done well and that I had passed. The two days went rather well as all of our troop passed both panels and final detachments. All we had to look for now was the final exam first thing Friday morning. Who cared about Wednesday and Thursday. In fact I am not sure what we even did on those days. My focus was on the final. FINAL FINAL FINAL..... Then Friday came. We went into the room and sat down for our three hours of testing. I came out of the test feeling good but how did everyone do. We would have to wait until after lunch, parade and fitness. Finally the fitness class was over. As Joe was saying his goodbyes to us in walked our three APS facilitators. NO emotion on their face what so ever. They walked over to our right marker and said in a quiet voice �we have the results back from the final�. You could have heard a pin drop in that gym. No one moved, the facilitators looked disappointed and upset, Cpl Gilroy was frowning and shaking his head. We were just about to burst as a troop when Cpl Arsenault continued with � We were hoping that everyone in the troop would pass the final.� Momentary pause for maximum effect. �Well, they did�. The room erupted with the loudest cheer that I think I have ever heard. The flood of emotion at that moment is totally undescribable. We had done it. The years that we had put into this goal had come down to that moment. The entire troop had passed all three finals with no one failing. That in and of itself was rare according to the facilitators. Apparently, there are on average 2 or 3 per troop fail one of the three and have to redo it but troop 26 pulled through. There are no more tests. We have a week of drill and APS with some lectures. But that�s it. So barring someone doing something stupid, we are done.. They also, in some cases, have the option of giving you a certificate of completion. Basically saying good for you. You completed the RCMP cadet training program but we are not going to hire you. That does happen and it has happened while I have been here. So here is hoping that it won't happen in our troop. The only hurdle we have now is that one of our troop members failed his rifle qualifications. His file is now under review. It's possible that he might be sent home. (In week 22). The good thing is that his detachment is behind him as well as the troop. I am sure that he is not going anywhere but we will not know fore sure until Monday or Tuesday.
If I could offer some advice to people starting this process it would be this, if you have no experience with firearms take a course. Even if it is a firearms safety course it would help and speed up the firearms part of the training. The firearms is only as fast as the slowest person. When I was applying I asked the RCMP what courses could I take that might help me in Depot. Nothing was suggested. In fact I was told that everything you needed to know would be taught to you at Depot. Which is true but knowledge is power. The more you know the easier it will be when you get here. I really feel that a firearms safety course should be mandatory for everyone coming to depot.
This week is going to be fun. No homework, no studying, just drill and final grad prep. We have our Regimental dinner on Wednesday, our Passout on Thursday. Most of our troops families arrive on Saturday and Sunday and then grad on Monday. I travel home on Tuesday and start work on Thursday. Amazing.
This website started its tiny beginning as something to curb the �heard anything yet� questions that I had been hearing from friends and family across the country while I was in the application process. Basically to let them know what I had to go through in the process to get here. As you can tell it kind of exploded outside my family and friends. I have received a ton of e-mails from people across the country. I have even had the pleasure of meeting people while at depot who had come across my site. It has been a great experience and I am glad that I was able to maintain this site while I have been here. If anything, I hope that it shed some light on the process and what is involved in getting here and getting through. I let my facilitators know of my website when I first arrived here. They have been very supportive of my site and in fact encouraged it. I obviously have to be smart about what I put on the site with regards to the training but I think what I have listed gives you the basic idea of what it all entails.
I am not sure when I will be able to make my final update as I will be a little busy next weekend. As soon as I have the time I will post grad pictures and any other pictures that I really have not had the time to spend posting on this site. Well I am off to polish my high browns. I have this last week to go and I am going to enjoy it.
This is the one that I have been looking for...
WEEK 22...FINALLY!!! |
