The rain

When it rains cats and dogs outside like it did today, it reminds me of the landnav course at AIT, one of our first training exercises when I got there. Basically, land navigation involves plotting several points on a map, and then walking to the different locations and recording the markings on different markers, and there's a certain number you're supposed to get to in a certain amount of time.

When I did it during my stay at Fort Bragg, it started raining after we got to the field and dropped off some of our gear and headed out, and it steadily increased in volume as me and my battle buddy made our way to the first point. I can't remember all the details now, but it took us a damn long time to find it. Then, it REALLY started pouring, and lightening started to strike, so basically we had to hunker down and wait for the storm to diminish.

At some point either before or during the storm, I started freaking out, not about the weather or anything, but about how we had only gotten one point out of four-five we were supposed to find and that the deadline was going to pass. I must have really gotten on my partner's nerves when I panicked since he was a really chill dude, but I had (have) an extreme fear of failure.

Essentially, what I remember after that was that the rain cleared up, the time to find all the points was extended, and we ended up finding the majority of the points assigned to us and passing the whole deal without any problems. I think for me, it illustrated the futility of freaking out and also illuminated more about how I handle stress - I know everything will work out fine, but until things get resolved, boy my nerves are frayed.

Apparently landnav is emphasized in WLC, and the weather forecast for where I'm going will be continuously rainy. Deja Vu? I'm kind of stressed about getting ready for WLC. In no way am I freaking out, just a little frustrated that everything's happening at the last possible minute. On that note... back to packing!