The New Cadet

Book excerpt: The New Cadet is a coming of age story about eighteen year old Alicia Randall, who enters The College of Armed Forces, CAF, as the second class of women. During her first year, she is faced with the rigorous challenges of the Tick Line and attempts to juggle her life within the college while staying connected to her old life. When her life outside the school shatters, Alicia begins walking the plank between falling apart and surviving. What ends up saving Alicia is a new found relationship with a woman, Cathleen, who introduces a variety of books, which expands Alicias awareness and puts her on a new path of self discovery and spiritual awareness. The trials and tribulations from the school extend beyond the Tick Line when Alicia is accused of participating in behavior that is unbecoming of an officer, and it takes every last ounce of strength to survive the school she had promised her brother she would never leave. In using the new concepts Cathleen taught her, it is those ideas that consequently give Alicia the tools for fighting a system and keeping her at a school she conflictingly loves.