I am a senior here at Vassar now. When the spring semester of 2024 ends, four years of hard work will accumulate into a degree given by an institution that many label as elite. This past summer I was asked a question by a Vassar alum that I still think about. This alum graduated in the 1970s, and after jokes about how she went to school centuries ago, conversations about what Vassar is like today and the knowledge she has gained from running her own business, she stumped me with a question. “How has Vassar taught you to think differently than the military has?” she asked. I thought for a second and rattled off a half-baked answer that I cannot even remember but I know was not good. Later that night, I wrestled with this question and turned in frustration as I still could not come up with an answer. I thought to myself, “How is it different?” “Is it different?” “What have I even learned from each of these experiences?” We all do a lot of thinking but how you are taught to think is something that, well, you do not think about a lot. In the Army I ran the miles, cleaned my weapon and followed the orders of the commanding officer. Here at Vassar, I study for the test, read the given assignments and write down notes as I listen to my professor. In both experiences, I have run into great leaders and great thinkers. The common attribute across the board is that great thinkers were proactive, came up with a plan and took action. But perhaps more importantly is that these great thinkers were able to adjust when their plans did not go accordingly, and trust me, they never do.
This writing is meant to be about my military experience. But instead of tales about escapades, deployments to the Middle East, or opinions on current conflicts and the U.S. war machine that loses hundred-million-dollar jets—I wanted to write about this question that made me rethink my entire experience. The military is not this “by-the-books, robotic thinking” that many people might see it as; you are actually encouraged to be quite creative (depending on where you are and who your command is). However, if you become stumped in the military, there is usually some standard operating procedure or grumpy, younger-than-they-look E-7 who is there to give you an answer. If I get stumped here at Vassar, yes there are plenty of faculty and textbooks I can turn to, but the questions are not as easily answered. Climate crisis, social issues, political chaos and global shifts are way too intricate to have a “standard operating procedure.” And now, as I write my thesis to capstone my Environmental Studies major at Vassar College, I try to keep this question in mind, “How do I think?” College and the military have their similarities and differences, but something I think the military taught me and that Vassar reinforces is that the world is ever-changing. Nothing ever goes to plan, and no one can predict exactly what is going to happen. Sometimes it is not about coming up with the best solution or getting the best grade on a test but instead adjusting to what happens to you. Trying to apply this to a world that is becoming ever more connected and yet seemingly increasingly polarized is a whole different task. To this day I still do not have a good answer to the question, but remembering to think about it might be more important than answering it.