AY2024 Editor's Vision - Reflections

My vision for this year’s edition of the Labyrinth is reflection. Have you taken the time to look inward in the past year? Have you grown? Are you the same person today that you were last year? What have you taken away from your time spent at USNA, personally or professionally?

I personally have endured a difficult lesson each year I have been at the Academy, and I have entered each academic year a different person than I was the previous year. I don’t know if I can call that growth or not, but it has taught me that life is everchanging. Even in the four short years that we spend here at USNA as young adults learning to take on the next chapter of adulthood, this minuscule moment of our lives is so formative. This is the point in which courses change, we fall in love and get our hearts broken, we make friends and lose them; we make mistake after mistake and hopefully learn not to repeat them; we learn to forgive and to give others and ourselves a little grace; we learn to show up for ourselves and for those who matter most. And hopefully, and perhaps most importantly, we learn to choose joy.

There is so much growth that happens in these four years. How often do we stop to take a look at the progress we’ve made during that time and celebrate it? All of it: the good, the bad and everything in between. This magazine reflects the collective human experiences across the Brigade of Midshipmen for the academic year 2024. Please enjoy.
 
With pleasure,
Alexis B. Betances
MIDN             USN
Editor-in-Chief