afjrotc and my relationship with the program

Post written by Abby Hopkins, Social Media Director
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Hello everyone, I’m Abby. I’m a senior at PHS and I have been in AFJROTC for four years. From pretty much before high school, I fell in love with the program and desperately wanted to be in the honors society after seeing my adopted sister get awards from it. My sister was in it before me and graduated in 2014. I entered high school in 2015, the year after she left. I was pretty much going through the program by myself until this year. I learned so much mainly in my first two years. 

My first year, I went to an event that I knew I was going to love, Clemson games. Our cadet core goes seven times a school year to Clemson and does their concessions for all the home games. We are given jobs like Runner, Cashier, etc. and we are at those for the whole 12-hour period. Another thing that I learned that we did was march, especially in parades for Christmas and for our Veteran’s day program. I honestly never got into marching correctly, even now as a senior.

The better I did in my academics, the more I got ranked up and got badges and ribbons. Just in my 10th grade year alone, I was promoted five times. I also got into the Kitty Hawk Honors Society which was the honors program for AFJROTC. In my junior year, I was given a spot on the staff which is the group of people who control the core. Kinda like how it is here, the students are in charge.

It makes me sad when I think about the fact that it is my last year in AFJROTC but I am so ready to move onto better things.