A cool summer breeze brushes against his face as he looks over the steep rolling hills of San Francisco. On his other side, a small gathering of three of cadets shadowing the Coast Guard stationed there in seclusion. No adults, no cadets, just him and his crew for a week together immersing themselves. This is where he wanted to be. This is home.
Senior Hudson Fay knew from a young age that he would go into the military, it was more of a journey to figure out what branch. With his many familial experiences and camps throughout his childhood, he has started to put the work into getting to the lifestyle he knew he would love.
Fay grew up building airplanes with his grandpa, that was when he knew where he wanted his life to go. When given an opportunity to apply to the Naval Academy for a summer seminar in March, he soon immersed himself into the Navy lifestyle over a the course of a week in the Maryland Naval Academy.
“It showed me the exact time commitment and lifestyle the academy would be like since it’s drastically different from a regular college,” Fay said. “It helped me realize what all I was sacrificing if I wanted to go there and what was expected of me, what life was like, how I would be held accountable, and just how much of a level above other colleges it is.”
Fay is also involved in the Sea Cadets, a youth leadership program where he drills once a month at the Fort Worth joint reserve base. Fay can also choose to do training during the summer through the program.
“Last summer I went to San Francisco, and there’s a Coast Guard station there,” Fay said. “I spent a week with the Coast Guard. It was just me, three other teenagers, and the Coast Guard, and we were part of their crew for a week, which was an amazing experience.”
In being stationed,
“It showed me what all is expected of me if I’m going to be in a leadership position, and how I need to be able to consider multiple different things,” Fay said “How I need to follow up with people that I’m in charge of, and that I need to set expectations. It has taught me a lot of discipline, accountability, time management, and being able to balance a lot of different things.”
Loving a challenge, Fay has taken what are deemed some of the hardest subjects in school. In fact, he plans on majoring in nuclear engineering or quantitative economics. Loving the idea of physics, though struggling with the class, Fay is willing to accept the challenge.
“I think my mindset now is that I could just keep throwing myself at it and eventually I’ll succeed,” Fay said. “Eventually everything is going to click. If I keep throwing myself at my obstacles, somethings gonna work.”
