If you had asked me four years ago what my college experience would look like, I never would have imagined 4:30 a.m. wake-ups, jumping out of planes or leading a battalion of 60 people before turning 22. I entered the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) with an open mind and little military background. Within weeks, I realized it was only about 10% tactics and 90% everything else — leadership, interpersonal skills, discipline, organization, public speaking and more.
Most of my growth, both as a cadet and as a person, has come from deliberately choosing the hard path. That meant waking up before dawn to ruck 26 miles with 42 pounds, stepping out of an aircraft in full combat gear — five times — walking into unfamiliar rooms full of unfamiliar faces at leadership conferences, pushing through long, cold, rain-soaked days in the field and carrying the weight of responsibility as both battalion commander and operations officer.
If there’s one piece of advice I’d give, it’s simple: do hard things. Seek out the challenges that make you hesitate. Over time, you become comfortable being uncomfortable — and once you reach that point, there’s very little you can’t handle. Go do something hard today.
Michelle Berndt is a fourth-year Army ROTC cadet and former student-athlete majoring in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Cullowhee, N.C. She will continue her education at the North Carolina State College of Veterinary Medicine, with career plans to be a U.S. Army Veterinarian.
