Goodbye School, Hello World


Today was my last day at home... I got to do so many incredible things while spending a short vacation back home in Texas. Flying with an awesome friend for some to kill for BBQ, taking a grandma flying for the first time in a long time, eating with a gingall in her halloween costume when nobody else was dressed up! haha There was so much to do and so many people to see. But i think that i got to see everyone (at least i hope i did).

Everyone is asking what i am feeling? What thoughts are going through my head? Am I excited? To answer these questions... yes, I am SO excited, but at the same time I am feeling nervous with a little anxiety thrown in the mix! haha What is there not to be excited about. I'm heading off to go around the globe (LITERALLY) and get paid... who else gets that opportunity. The moment that i have waited for, for a year and a half, has finally made its approach and has arrived. There is nothing that I or anyone else can do to stop it.

I am going to miss my family, the support system, and all of my friends who somehow seem to make me laugh every hour of the day at the #1 school in the nation for unhappiest students. There is so much to miss, that's what makes this the hardest.

So when 8 am arrives thursday morning, after one look at my sea partner and a nod of approval, I am going to take a bold step and lead one foot behind the other... I am going to walk up that gangway and make my presence known... KEEGAN farley has arrived. Go ahead world, throw what you can at me, nothing is stopping me now, there is nothing in this world that I or anyone else in this world can't achieve. Dream it, Believe it, Do it.

Thanks to everyone who believed in me, kept pushing me to go forward and not give up. This trip is for you!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Tomorrow is the last day that i will be spending here in Kings Point for the next 4 -5 months. Its soooo nice to finally walk through the gate out front that has kept me locked inside for so long. It is going to be a nice break and one that i have definitely needed. So far I think that everything has gone farely well this week. I still do not know my economics grade which is the one that i am worried about the most.

Its time to raise the sails and let them fly!

Hopefully i get to see everyone back home!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!! thought this was a pretty fitting picture for this blog.

SOLAS

I completed two of the hardest finals of the week, whether i did good on them... i don't know. we won't get the grades for a little bit. It was definitely stressful and made for a long day. tomorrow i a have SOLAS - Safety of Life at Sea - what to do if my ship sinks; how to surivev, you know the basic stuff. It is a pretty simple class.

So i checked the forecast and it looks like when i come home your weather turns to sunny. Maybe i'm just good luck or something because i don't think you guys have gotten any sunshine in Texas for the past month or two.

t-4 days until headed towards the west! Texas i'm almost home...

Finals Week

Alright, this week happens to be my most important week of the trimester, it is FINALS week. This is where one test happens to be half or 25% of your grade. Its crazy, you have worked soooo hard for the last 12 weeks and now it all comes down to one test! thats a major portion of your grade. So what i need from you is a prayer and good luck.

This is the most stressful week for any midshipman up here at USMMA! if only i did not have to go through weeks like this things would great up here in NY.

Tomorrow happens to be my hardest day with an economics test worth 50% of my grade, that is my hardest class this try!! please wish me luck!!!!

I'll try to update this as much as i can this week but i can't make any guarantees. HAPPY MONDAY... :-(

Sea Projects


I thought i would make this post a little more informational. Most of you know that i will be going out to sea in just a few weeks time, but what you may not know is that i have to do what is called Sea Year Projects... and is a lot of what seperates this maritime academy from the rest. It is very rigerous and difficult, its truly to be completed after 4 months and no less.

The reason why i tell you this is that its not all fun and games or a vacation, also today we had a lecture over how to deal with the projects and the stress it brings on. Although i will be traveling around the world, i will still be doing school stuff too! stinks, i know.

Just a side note, i just found out i could be stopping in Pakistan too.

Almost There


Well, here we go another week to get through! Sorrry i was not able to post for much of this past week, i had much going on up here at school. We had four major exams in span of two days, therefore i was doing my best to get through it studying pretty hard for most of the week.


For the most part the exams went by ok, except for my economics exam... but we'll save that conversation for a rainy day! haha


It's beginning to get really cold up here, with highs in yhe 40's. I'm just glad that i am out of here in a matter of two weeks. This is our last week of classes, followed by finals week. I'll keep you posted.

Awesome Quote


Throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.


~ Mark Twain.

Coming Home


For all who are interested I will be coming home October 30 - November 4... i am pretty excited, this is the time off i get before catching my ship up here in the Port of NY! Things have been pretty busy up here at the academy... lots of test and homework and that sort of stuff, its all so much fun! NOT. it's definitely a lot of work and i can't wait to get out of here for a change.


So i hope everyone is having a great time back home and enjoying the fall weather. Up here it has been reallllly nice, fall up here in the north has been great, i am just glad that i am not going to have to be here in the winter.


Homecoming


It was Homecoming weekend this weekend, there were many alumni that came to celebrate. Even member from the class of of 1944, which is the second year that the academy was open, was in attendence. As always here, whenever there is a big event a major thunderstorm seems to always roll on through. At half time of the football game, the skies opened up and the rain came down. That ended the football game pretty quickly. We all went back to our rooms, and made new plans.
I decided to enjoy the night life with some of my in NYC. It turned out to be a fun night and the rain made it for a nice evening out.

Busy Week

Well guys, sorry i haven't been able to write in a few days. It has been a very busy week for me with lots of tests... hopefully i did okay on them, but you never know, i am always so nervous about tests.
Everything has been going great up here. I really think that we skipped fall and hit winter, boy it has been really cold up here. The highs have been in the 50's for the last few days. I officially have four weeks left until the trimester is over, boy how time flies. Nothing too new or exciting for me. This weekend is homecoming weekend, so many of the alumni will be arriving tomorrow. Thats always a good time and its fun to hear the sea stories that they all tell.
enjoy your day!

Another Day in NY


Only 5 weeks until i am out of NY for 4 months, i can't wait... it's going to be so nice to be gone from this place for a while!! Not much is really going on up here right now, winter is definitely approaching fast. it's starting to get pretty chilly up here, with highs of about 65 or 70, which is really nice. Besides school i'm just trying to figure out how one prepares for such a long time at sea?
well, i won't keep you too long... hope everyone is having fun back home!!!

What I Have Been Waiting for Since Arriving July 9, 2008


I officially found out what ship i will be spending the next four months on!! I am going to be on the APL President Jackson, a container ship that is 902 ft. long, which is about three football fields long.

So where will i be going? I depart NY on November 5 and will travel to Dubai, Sri Lanka - India, Port Kelan - Malaysia, Singapore, the Suez Canal, The Straits of Gibralter, and the Gulf of Aden... to go to Singapore and back will take around 60 days... i will do two runs, which equals to 112 days out at sea. This is about the closest you can come to taking a ship, who has a scheduled route, around the world. Lots of picture opportunities!!
This is the Route to Singapore via the Atlantic Ocean. (Click to see bigger)

This is the route from singapore back to U.S. via Atlantic Ocean. (click to see bigger)

I am so excited and can't wait to get out there and see the world.

Did Somebody Say FIRE!?

Today was a jam packed day... the day began at 5:30 am, the time i woke up, to prepare for our Firefighting field trip. In order to go out to sea you must be qualified in basic firefighting skills. We have already taken the class and now it was time to do the practical skills.
Me and my 17 section mates of 3T1 took a charter bus to a small town in rural New Jersey. They have a firefighting school there that specializes in maritime fire safety. Once arriving we sat through about a 20 minute class and then it was time to pick out our safety gear.
In no time we were out on the hoses spraying things down to get used to the pressure in the hoses and the types of sprays. As soon as we felt comfortable, a fire was lit in the engine room of the mock ship. With our full gear and air devices (SCBA, which is the mask we are wearing in the picture below) we took turns entering into the engine room (2 at a time) to put out the fire. Man it was hot in there, it was pretty neat go in and see what big fire is like. Once this activity was done we practiced in spraying foam on oil fires, using fire extinguishers to put out kitchen fires, and much more. It was a very educational day and definitely a lot of fun... I can thank all of you taxpayers for all of the fun we had!!! haha

What a Weekend


This weekend was absolutely B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L, we just had to get out and enjoy it. Saturday we had inspection followed by a football game. We decided once liberty commenced to go to Roosevelt Field Mall about 20 minutes from Great Neck. It is a HUGE mall and has every store known to man. I had a good time with my friends and got a new pair of tennis shoes.


Sunday i slept in then went to TGI Fridays later in the day... which is always a nice way to end the weekend. Thats about it. Tomorrow its off to Firefighting school in NJ!!! I'll let you know how it goes.


to be cont'd

THANK GOD ITS FRIDAY


As lovely as this academy is (sarcasm) they somehow always seem to have trouble with their internet systems... it has been so slow lately, but hopefully its back and working fine now.

It was "Cookie Cafe" day, the first one of the year at that!! Cookie Cafe is always nice, its a little reminder of home with all kinds of homemande cookies sent from the parents associations. Sometimes there are parents there to help cook too. Yesterday USMMA had a celebrity family here, the Heinemann family. They cooked lots of cookies and brought milk for the M/N at the academy. The number cookies that cooke cafe had for the day, around 14,000!! crazy, but boy were they good.
The picture above is just one example of a batch of cookies sent by one family!
Thank God its friday, and the week is finally over! Boy what a long week

A Good Day




Today turned out to be a great day. A test i didn't do too well was curved to a better grade, lunch was good (tacos), and it was a beautiful day outside.

There isn't too much to talk about today, so i'll just leave you with some pictures.

The car was my friend Heinemann's mustang, one of the nicest i have seen... since he's on the volunteer fire department his car is equipped with emergency lights. we got bored and took some pictures.

A Night Away

I got the opportunity to go with one of my best friends, Heinemann, to New Jersey... and let me tell you NJ is a lot prettier than they ever get credit for. Within 15 minutes we were in the moutains in a state park while 15 minutes in the other direction gives you the urban life. Its a very neat place. We ate dinner saturday night at a very good italian food restaurant. Then on sunday morning i had my first North East bagel... apparently i haven't lived unless i have eaten a bagel and it was very good. We spent much of the day driving around and also at the Firehouse that Heinemann is a part of. There was a great group of people there that i was fortunate enough. Just before having to come back the Heinemann family treated me with steak, fries, and homemade cookies. They were SPECTACULAR! thanks to Heinemann for a really great weekend!!!!

Also i would like to say thanks to him for many of the pictures of his that i have used on this blog.

This weekend happened to be a very awesome weekend. It was parents weekend and Coast Guard weekend. Our football played the USCG Academy, their academy bussed in about 700 cadets and we had all of our school plus the parents. It was a very packed game and one of the best i have seen here. It went into double overtime and we won!!! GO USMMA

Parents Weekend

This upcoming weekend is parents weekend for the class of 2013, i just can't beleive it has been one entire year since it was my parents weekend. Parents weekend means that 2013 will be sworn in by the Commandant of the Coast Guard into the Naval Reserve, they will get a little more freedom, but not a whole lot.

Not much is going on today, we had very beautiful weather today, which is always nice. And the Regiment had a BBQ while the soccer team played a game, so thats always a nice change.

As i write this blog, a song came on "Taking Chances" by Celine Dion, and i think that it perfectly describes what many Mishipman have done at the this academy. We are all taking a chance, and hopefully it all works out!

I put some pictures of from Parents Weekend of last year. Enjoy!

Trip To Virginia

I'm back at the Academy now, after a nice three day weekend in Reston, Virginia. Reston is about 30 minutes outside of Washington D.C.. I went down there with Adam Wise, a good friend of mine and my sea year partner. We rode the bus down there, which was supposed to take about 4 hours... but, due to one of the NYC's tunnels being closed we had to travel 1.5 miles south which in NYC traffic took 2.5 hours!! and then just when we were about to go in the tunnel, we hit a car, then we got back in line for the tunnel. Luckily that was the only bad luck we had.
On Saturday we went canoeing down the Patomac River. We went down the river for about 7 miles. We saw some deer and other wildlife, it was a very pretty scene with all of the trees and bends in the river. It would have helped if we would have had a little more current though.
On Sunday, i got to go to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum!!! Something i have wanted to do for a long time now. It was AMAZING, to say it in simple terms. It was a large hangar filled to the brim, literally with airplanes... they even had an actual retired Space Shuttle, along with a 164-ft mock control tower which over looked Dulles airport.
The weekend was also filled with some good home baked meals, relaxing, movie watching, and talking with the Wise Family. They are great people and I am glad i got the opportunity to spend Labor Day Weekend with them.

Now I got to get back in gear for school. Here we go...

Virginia

It's off to Virginia for the Labor Day weekend. I am heading down there with a good friend of mine. It's going to be a nice needed break away from the Academy. I hope everyone has a good weekend off of work and gets a chance to have fun and relax a little.

HAPPY LABOR DAY

We Will NEVER Forget

Today was rather different than any average day at Kings Point. Me and 11 other guys had to go to the City this morning to pick up our TWIC card, it is a Transportation Worker ID card which allows me access to any U.S. port. A pretty important card.
We went to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal to do this, which on the very southern part of Manhatten. That didn't take long, so we spent some extra time in this area. The World Trade Center was only a few blocks a way. So a few of us decided to visit the 9/11 Museum and Memorial. It was such a touching museum, one of the best I have ever been to. It is next to the World Trade Center fire station. It had all of the missing people posters on a wall, and 1000's of pictures of people who died in the tragedy, along with many quotes from that day. Many artifacts were there, it was just overwhelming to see all of this. It really makes an impact on your life and why you should cherish every moment. I recommend that if you ever get the chance to come to NYC you visit this museum.
"WE WILL NEVER FORGET"

Goodbye Crossfire


It is September 1, and up here in New York it is almost as if summer completely went away for this first day of the month. Most of the day it was around 70 degrees, seemingly perfect weather. It always puts me in a good mood when there is good weather up here, because it doesn't happen all too often.

Today my car was sold, i no longer have the Crossfire that carried me for so many miles around Texas. It's pretty sad to see it go, but it would be pointless to keep it for the next two years with no one to drive. It was a great car... goodbye Crossfire.


Special Guest


Today we had the assistant engineer who was held hostage on the Maersk Alabama speak to us this evening. He is a graduate of Kings Point and knows first hand what it was like to be captured by pirates. He showed us pictures and told us how he felt while onboard the ship. He also showed us pictures of the lifeboat which where the pirates were taken out by "3 shots." The engineer told us he was quite amused that the media said it was three shots when there were about 30 bullet holes in lifeboat.
It was pretty interesting and a situation that i hope i never have to be in. Did good on the tests that i took last week, so that made my day pretty good.

Hurricane... Think Again


It rained off and on all day but at least it was cool. Hurricane Danny didn't quite make it the storm everyone thought it would be, not even a thunderstorm resulted from, just strictly a steady rain.

I spent my day at the Vigilant Fire Company. we responded to several ambulance calls today, and i stepped it up a notch and was the EMT tech (person in charge) of every call we went on. I wasn't so confident about it if you would have asked me yesterday, but i'm finally getting it.

It's nice to be able to help people out, and boy did we get to today. We had some pretty serious calls and we were able to help the patients out.

Do you know what the best thing about today was... there was no school, and that is always the best!! =)
"IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO BECOME WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN."
-George Eliot

Thank God It's Friday

NOT TOO MUCH LONGER!

I just wanted to let everyone know that i think the test that i was sooo worried about yesterday, actually went well. Although i do not yet know my grade, i feel that i had the confidence needed to get through it.

Its finally the end to a long week, although now everyone in the northeast gets to focus their attention on Hurricane Danny.... is it going to hit us or miss us!!

My family is currently on a cruise, hopefully they are enjoying the time out on the open seas!!

Hope everyone is doing good back home!

Thanks to everyone for keeping up to date on my blog and thanks for all of your supportive comments.

The Unknown

Right now i am studying for a world history test that will be taken tomorrow morning. I am freaking out because i have no clue what to study or how to study for the test. It's a humanities class, it shouldn't be that hard, right??
Well, wish me luck, because i am definitely going to need it. Lets really hope it doesn't end up like the picture above.