The Reinvention of Cake

Prep

By

Berry Michel

On day in basic training, our drill sergeant stood in front of our formation and asked if anyone of us new recruits wanted to become an officer. I was new to the Army, so I didn’t really know what an officer did compared to an enlisted person, but I knew they made more money. Not sure what I was getting myself into, I raised my hand and took a chance. Normally, volunteering for anything in basic training was generally a bad idea. However, this one spontaneous decision would alter the course of my life forever.

I didn’t know what I was volunteering for at the time, but it turned out I was volunteering to go through the application process for the United States Military Academy Preparatory School also known as West Point Prep. Every year West Point Prep recruits about 150 high school seniors and another 150 enlisted soldiers to attend a year long program that prepares students that could not normally qualify for admission to West Point due to the academic or physical rigors of being a cadet. I was on the academically challenged side of the house. I barely graduated high school with a 2.0 GPA.

Somehow by the grace of God of by fate, I was selected to attend West Point Prep. I arrived at West Point Prep in June 1995. It was an eventful journey there as I remember driving across the country from Texas to New Jersey. This was the era before GPS, so I had to rely on a triple A map to guide me to my destination. The trip was almost uneventful until I reached New Jersey and got into a car accident with a hotel valet in Atlantic City. I was trying to make a left turn and the hotel valet plowed into the passenger side rear of my car.  I remember that my car was towed, and the police insisted I be taken to the emergency room to get checked out. I was fine. After a few hours wasted in the ER, I made my way to my impounded car and then drove the rest of way to Fort Monmouth with my rear bumper now sitting in my rear seat. It was New Jersey, so I had to take my junk with me. I didn’t get a hotel that night as I arrived early in the morning of the day, I was supposed to report to the Prep School. I just slept a few hours in my car with that rear bumper sitting there reminding me of my hellish night before I checked in with the West Point Prep staff.

I remember sitting there in the parking lot watching the recruited high school students showing up on buses as they didn’t have cars like we enlisted soldiers had. They all looked so fresh and green to Army life as they struggled to form up and follow basic military orders. I remember getting a kick out of it even though I had only been in the Army nine months myself. After attending basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, the initial intake at West Point Prep was a cakewalk. Little did I know I would meet my future first wife among that group of Army newbies. She was straight out of high school, and she took a liking to me early. Before I knew it, we were dating and did so for the entirety of our time at the Prep School.

I have fond memories from the Prep School. I made friends there that I still to this day keep in touch with and the academic rigor that I was put through there gave me the confidence that I could conquer any college academic program. The funny thing about me attending the West Point Prep School is that I didn’t really want to attend West Point. I so badly wanted to attend a regular college and have a civilian college experience. I thought about quitting the program a couple of times, but I was always talked out of it by the faculty there. Don’t get me wrong, West Point is one of the top schools in the country. It just wasn’t my dream. By the end of the year, however, I decided that I would go ahead and attend West Point after receiving an appointment there.

Just one problem, between the period of graduating West Point Prep and reporting to West Point for intake, my then girlfriend at the time, who was also a West Point Prep graduate and West Point Appointee, became pregnant. She was a devout Catholic, so she informed me that she was keeping the baby. I didn’t really want to get married at such a young age, but I also wanted to be there for my child. Especially, after all the things I had went through with my father. I didn’t want my child not knowing me or thinking I was some kind of dead beat. So, both my girlfriend and I decided to give up our appointments to West Point and decided to get married and start a family that was already in progress.

We got married at the Chapel on Fort Monmouth and the wedding was attended by our families that were not that happy about it either. Our friends from the prep school were in attendance as well. They were all headed off to attend West Point in a week. While my new wife and I were off to start a marriage and family that neither of us were prepared for. We had just spent a year improving our math and English skills. Nothing had prepared us for what we were about to face.

We were young and knew nothing about making a marriage work and let a lone how to take care of another life. Much of the early days was trial and error and yes full of stress, tension, and arguments. But we made it work. We had to. Now looking back on it, I don’t know if you can ever be fully prepared for love, life, and family. Yes, maturity helps, but the more you live life the more you realize how unprepared you are for the challenges that will inevitably come your way and there is no prep school for that.