Barracks the new home that I’ve made for myself where I keep all that I need for making it through VMI but not all that I need to do can be accomplished in Barracks so everyday I must journey out of Barracks. My journey starts with me leaving my room and leaving with a strain and walking the Rat line at that thinking about it brings me back to the summer transition program when we could  leave our rooms without having to strain or walk the line. While walking the rat line I can only use one stairwell for part of the day instead of any stairwell like during the summer program which in all honesty helped speed up getting to where you needed to go. I walk down the stairs straining and I see the familiar sight of Brother Rats doing push ups or getting yelled on the lower levels which has become a daily occurrence a shift from the peaceful walk down of the summer program devoid of upperclassmen. The rest of the walk out of barracks usually pretty easy as long as you don’t do anything wrong and then we get to let out the strain once we’ve made it through the arch. My journey from my room to the outside of barracks serves as a reminder of the shift I experienced from the summer program casualness to VMI’s strictness.

When I first saw the photo of VMI after it had been bombarded during the civil war it gave me a feeling of the history of VMI and all that has occurred here. Feeling how much history was at VMI gave me a sense of the impact has played through out U.S. history. Also when I saw the photo I had the feeling of the end of the old VMI from before the Civil war and the feeling that VMI would go on to be reborn later after the war.

Travis Brown is similar to other in how he’s from Wellsburg West Virginia, went to Madonna High School, or have a younger brother and sister. What makes him different however is the real story. While attending high school he did four years of football along with two years of track, also taking part on the student council. After high school Brown decided to attend college at VMI  with a three year Army scholarship with the hope of being able to go into aviation. At VMI he started a down the difficult path of majoring in Mechanical Engineering.