Hermiston High School graduate Jack Baumeister knew that attending the West Point Military Academy was going to be tough. He just wasnt anticipating how tough.

Baumeister recently returned earlier this month after spending his first year at the military academy. He said nearly everything about his first year was more rigorous and demanding that he thought it would be.

Going in, I was expecting it to be incredibly difficult scholastically and basically anything you can think of, he said. In reality, it was, in a lot of ways, even more difficult. A lot of the classes I took there, I took in high school. I took chemistry in high school, and I got an A. It wasnt a big deal.

Baumeister said his classes at the academy were more rigorous than he ever anticipated. Before he could even think about school, however, he and all other freshmen participated in a six-week training similar to boot camp. Baumeister said this was intense, but it wasnt as bad the boot camp he endured upon entering the military three years prior to serve in the National Guard.

On Baumeisters first day at the academy, which marked the first day of training, the students, who are known as cadets throughout their tenure at the institution, had about 30 seconds to say goodbye to their families. They then spent the day getting lectured, filling out paper work, participating in military drills and more, like they did in basic training. All of the drills were led by fellow West Point cadets.

That was really interesting, Baumeister said of serving under his classmates.

At the end of the first day, which poured rain for most of the day, all cadets were instructed in basic marching, and they led a parade for friends and family of the cadets. He said, despite the rigor and intensity of the day, it was a great moment to march for their families.

By the end of the day, it was really neat, he said.

Baumeister said his first day of classes was kind of a shock compared to what he experienced during the six weeks leading up to the start of school. He said his professors, all high-ranking military officials, were pretty relaxed when it came to teaching in a classroom. The course load, however was pretty overwhelming. He said he took six classes his first semester and eight his second semester. Some of the classes he took included chemistry, pre-calculus, psychology, English, U.S. history, math modeling, technology and boxing a requirement for all male cadets.

That was a bit of a shock, he said. They hold the classes at a lot higher of a standard It was that way with every course I took. But one of the nicest things is there is a network of people to help you. Everybody is there to help you out. It is not just every man for himself. We have a motto of cooperate and graduate.

Baumeister said it is pretty much impossible to fail out of West Point because of all the support cadets receive throughout the school year.

In addition to his regular classes, Baumeister had to participate in a sport. He said he chose wrestling and grappling, both sports in which he had never participated. As a school, the cadets are divided into 36 different companies, and each company has a team for a specific sport. He said the teams compete against each other, and the winner of each sport becomes the brigade champion. Those teams then move on to compete against the Naval Academy.

Baumeister said, in addition to their extracurricular activities, freshmen also had certain duties they had to fulfill, which included collecting trash from each persons dorm room every night, cleaning, where freshmen swept the halls and cleaned bathrooms and other common areas, and doing laundry, where every Sunday, freshmen gathered up each persons laundry basket full of uniformed clothing and took them down to be cleaned. He said they were also required to call minutes before every formation where every freshmen lined up to yell, at the top of their lungs, their schedules, what was on the menu for meals that day and much more.

Anytime there was a formation, we had to call minutes, he said. That might have been worse than the trash. You had to be really loud, and there was always some upperclassmen who said that we screwed it up somehow by not yelling loud enough or not saying something right.

Baumeister said every day, except for the weekend, their days were very structured and regimented. He said an average day of his included waking up at 5:30 a.m. to shave, shower and go to breakfast formation. After breakfast, each cadet attended approximately four classes, depending on their individual schedules. Cadets then participated in a mandatory lunch formation and lunch period and then attended the rest of their classes. He said they were usually done with their regular classes by about 4 p.m.

Following the regular school day, Baumeister said they then participated in their company athletics for an hour to two hours, depending on their schedule for that day. After that, they had an optional dinner period. Following dinner, at 7:30 p.m., they had a mandatory study period that lasted until about 9:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. After that, it was bed time.

Baumeister said he tried to fight their strict schedule for probably the first month of classes.

At first, I thought This is horrible. I hate it, he said. But after the first month, you just kind of accept it It was very regimented, but it kind of worked out. I think being busy is a lot better than being bored.

Baumeister said the hardest part, socially, about life at the academy was having to miss out on a lot of things. He said freshmen were not allowed to leave campus on weekdays, and on weekends, they had to stay within five miles of the academy. He said there was a town nearby that had a couple of restaurants he sometimes visited. Freshman cadets also had one pass per semester that allowed them to leave for a weekend, in addition to their regularly scheduled Thanksgiving, Christmas and spring breaks, where they could go home.

Baumeister said as he advances through the grade levels, he will gain more freedom to travel away from the academy. As a sophomore, he said will be able to travel 50 miles outside of the academy during the weekends. As a junior and senior he will be free to travel wherever during the weekends, and during the week days, he will basically only have to return by a certain time at night.

Baumeister said freshmen are also not allowed to talk while outside the walls of the academy, which was especially hard for him.

Im a conversationalist, he said. I love talking to people. So that was pretty tough.

Overall, however, Baumeister said he is glad he has stuck with the academy, and he is looking forward to his next three years at the institution. He said he cant wait until he becomes a junior and senior and has the ability to take on some of the leadership roles. He said he is also looking forward to next year because he will have a bit more freedom, even though the upperclassmen say that sophomore year is the hardest because of the course load. Baumeister said next year, he will take a total of nine courses his second semester, which he said he cant even imagine at this point, but he knows he will find the strength to see it through.

Baumeister said his friends and family are ecstatic and proud he is attending West Point.

Its still exciting, and Im very proud, but, for me, it doesnt seem like that big of a deal anymore, he said.

Following his four years at the military academy, Baumeister said he will be required to serve five years of active duty with the Army and three years of reserve service. At that point, he will be an officer in the military.