Lights out was supposed to be at 2100, but with people taking showers, cleaning up, and just being excited about the last day, we ended up staying up until 2200. Everyone was just excited about being done with Basic Training, so most people stayed up the whole time. Lights came on at 2330 (30 minutes before they were supposed to come on!), so when it was all said and done, I probably only got an hour of sleep because of those who were awake the whole time. We were told to start cleaning, and to stage our personal bags, that we would be taking with us, downstairs. We continued to thoroughly clean the bay upstairs, because after today we would be out of here! We cleaned the windows, we cleaned the walls, the wall lockers, the bunks, the floors, the latrine, the showers...every single nook and cranny, we cleaned. It was about 0300 in the morning by the time we finished cleaning, and so I hid behind the wall lockers just to try to get a few more minutes, if not an hour or so, of more sleep. People were pretty loud, but I was able to get a couple of naps here and there. At 0500, we went downstairs and loaded the deuce with our personal bags, and we would get them back once the graduation ceremony was over. We then formed up and marched as a company down to where we had our Turning Blue Ceremony the day before and took buses to the graduation field, which was located behind the National Infantry Museum. Once we got there, we formed up parallel to the other company that was graduating with us and we did a run-through of the ceremony, which took a couple of hours. We had already ran through the ceremony a couple of days before, but this was the first time we ran through it on the graduation field. Once we were done, we sat around and waited for an hour, and watched all of the families file into the bleachers and wait for us to commence. A little before 0900, the Army band went out onto the field to play some music for the crowd before the ceremony began. At 0900, it was finally time for the graduation ceremony to start, and the Hooah squad had different colored smoke grenades go off in the back, and then paraded up to the front, and a brief history of the Infantry and the weapons they use today was delivered over the loud speaker. We then marched out onto the field and stood in a mass formation in front of our families. After standing before our families, the music struck up again as we paraded around the field, and got in a second formation in front of the families, and the Honor Grad from each company graduating was honored. We sang the Army and Infantry songs, and the ceremony concluded. The families came out onto the field, took pictures with their new infantry soldier, and I got to see my family again! After about 10 or 15 minutes of taking pictures, we formed back up and marched off the field, where we were given a briefing about transportation to our next duty station, but since I'm in the National Guard, I didn't really need that. I snuck a text to my family letting them know where to meet me after the ceremony, and by the time I got my bag off the deuce, my family was there waiting for me. We were FINALLY released to go, and at about 1030, I was on my way home! I was finally FREE! My Reinbold grandparents headed back home to Florida as soon as the ceremony was over, so I got to ride home with my Sease grandparents, my parents, Brittney, and Devon. We stopped off at Ranger Joe's and while my family looked around at Army memorabilia, I changed into civilian clothes for the ride home. The ride home was kind of a blur because I drifted in and out of sleep, and answered questions while I was awake. We stopped off at Ryan's for dinner, where I got a military discount, and enjoyed some non-Army base food! After dinner, we headed on home and got in around 9:00 pm (yes, 9:00 pm, finally off of military time!). I took my stuff inside to my room, said hi to my little sister who I hadn't seen since April, and then headed over to Brittney's house to "re-introduce" myself to her family! I had defied the opinions of my drill sergeants, I had my mom and everyone at home praying, and I had made it through basic training!
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