{"id":848,"date":"2020-09-28T15:02:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T19:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/magazine-2020\/?p=848"},"modified":"2024-08-13T15:06:28","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T19:06:28","slug":"carry-the-boulder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/magazine-2020\/2020\/09\/carry-the-boulder\/","title":{"rendered":"Carry the Boulder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An open letter to the Class of 2024<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This summer, with the shock effects of the pandemic reverberating across every facet of daily life, rising Charlie Company Commander Cadet Christian Seidler realized that the coming academic year would test the endurance of the Class of 2024 more than usual, so he composed this letter to encourage and inspire them to accept the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Summer 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear\nKnobs,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other day I took a break from the quarantine monotony to go for a much-needed run through my California neighborhood. But this run was different from my typical runs.  There was no music, no one accompanying me, no distractions\u2014it was just me and my thoughts. As the sun beat down, warm sweat beaded on my face, and on a steep trek up a hill, three simple words from my knob year came back to me: \u201cCarry the boulder.\u201d My fellow Fourth Battalion brothers and sisters with whom I had the privilege to matriculate will remember these words from a speech given to us by our battalion commander, Chase Shiflet. It was Challenge Week, and the day was a lot like this running day, with the addition, of course, of Charleston\u2019s infamous humidity. Mr. Shiflet, as we knew him, was comparing each year at The Citadel to climbing a mountain, noting that we each choose how much weight we will carry. Though their gravity was lost on me that day, his words have since guided me and transformed my life, and I would like to share his words and my story with you as you embark upon your journey on the Road Less Traveled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost people in life carry a pebble. They put\nit in their pocket and walk up the mountain without much pain. When they reach\nthe peak, they are content and move on to the next mountain. Then there are\nthose few who carry the boulder. It\u2019s heavy. It\u2019s painful. You will fall flat\non your face and fail. It will push you to your limit and crush you. But when\nyou reach that peak, you will look back on all that you struggled through, all\nof the pain and hardship, and you will be filled with a full heart because\ndespite all of the pain and adversity, YOU OVERCAME IT. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are two types of pain in life, the\nphysical pain that you grow from and the pain of regret. After these four\nyears, not every senior\u2019s ring weighs the same. When fate hands you a mirror to\nreflect on your life, which pain will you feel? I choose the pain that makes me\ngrow. I choose to carry the boulder.<\/em>  So I challenge all of you to do the same. Take\neach year, take each day, take each moment that you have the privilege to wear\nthis uniform and use it to carry the boulder up that mountain. CARRY THE BOULDER!\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I reflected on those remarks during my run and\nrealized just how much those three simple words have transformed my life. My Citadel experience has taught me a number of life\nlessons that were forged in the fires of my knob year and have been tempered\nand strengthened each moment since. <\/a>I would not be where I am today if not\nfor those words, and just as importantly, an environment in which to put them\ninto practice. The Citadel gave me not only the tools for success, but also the\nenvironment in which to carry the boulder and put those simple words into\naction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knob year was tough. There were moments of\ndoubt in everyone\u2019s mind at some point during those long nine months.\nThankfully, you do not go through knob year alone, which is why there is an\nindescribable feeling of camaraderie among cadets at every level, from the\nsquad to the entire Corps of Cadets. We share this formative experience and\ngrow to become leaders. Every good leader is also a dynamic follower. I leaned\non my classmates countless times throughout the years, and they leaned on me.\nYou cannot achieve success alone. The Citadel has taught me this lesson. You\nwill learn that you can achieve more when you work together and take care of\none another. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leadership is an action, not a position. There\nare so few opportunities to practice leadership with the freedom to fail. I\nencourage you to fail, but not to let that failure define you. Instead, always\nfail forward. For every successful achievement, no matter how small, I have\nfailed several times to get there. I have made good decisions as a leader, and\nI have made more than my share of mistakes. What separates most people from us\nat The Citadel is that we learn to use those failures as a means to grow and\nget better. We are dynamic leaders who adapt and evolve to meet the demands of\nour environment, and we thrive because we have so many experiences in our\ntoolbox of knowledge that we gained during our time as cadets. The Citadel is a\nsmall place in the vast world of life, but it is a meaningful one. You will\nhave your peaks and you will have your valleys. Lean on your classmates, carry\nthe boulder together, fail forward, then get right back up, and you will\nachieve success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My chosen path is the military. Since I was a\nlittle kid, I have wanted to serve something greater than myself, so after graduation\nI will serve my country in the United States Air Force. While attending Tactical\nAir Control Party (TACP) officer selection in March, I had the privilege of meeting\nsome of the finest leaders I have ever known. At the same time, I also met the\nmost difficult moments in my life. During times of great struggle, we often\nfall back on what we know and what we have learned. Learning to be a leader and\na dynamic follower at The Citadel gave me the tools to succeed at TACP officer selection.\nIt was designed for us to fail first and then come together to lead and support\none another within a team. The theme is identical in concept to knob year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the course of one week at TACP selection,\nwe were pushed to our physical and mental limits while functioning on little\nsleep and a calorie-deficit diet. While the experience sounds difficult, it was\nmerely a discomfort after The Citadel, where we develop a second nature to be\ncomfortable at being uncomfortable. If not for The Citadel, I would have been\nill prepared to function in such a demanding environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adversity takes many forms. This year, my\nfamily was going through an emotionally and financially difficult divorce. As\nthe oldest of four sons, I had to step up to help where I could and when I\ncould. It was a tough time for us all, but I told my family the same thing when\nour world around us seemed to be falling apart: \u201cThings will get better.\u201d I\nlearned through my experiences that times of challenge eventually pass. How we\nreact during those especially difficult moments defines our character. I found\nmyself assuming the role of the father figure with no clear end in sight, but\nthose words got us through our difficult times, and we have since grown\nstronger from the experience. And from the back regions of my mind, those same\nthree words resonate again: \u201cCarry the boulder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I reflected on these experiences during\nthat neighborhood run, I came to a greater understanding of the value of those\nwords and an even greater appreciation for The Citadel and the opportunities it\nafforded me. The Citadel experience and the amazing people I met along the way\u2014Citadel men and women whom I have had the\ngreat blessing to call my brothers and sisters\u2014made me who\nI am today.  And I am forever grateful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very\nrespectfully, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christian Seidler<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Cadet Christian Seidler is the 2021 Charlie Company commander and a civil engineering
major.\u00a0 He is the recipient of an Air Force Scholarship as well as the Captain Ryan Hall Leadership Sword, presented annually to the rising senior Air Force contract cadet who has excelled in academics and leadership, and he is one of less than a dozen ROTC cadets across the country to be awarded an Air Force tactical air control party officer slot.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An open letter to the Class of 2024 This summer, with the shock effects of the pandemic reverberating across every facet of daily life, rising Charlie Company Commander Cadet Christian Seidler realized that the coming academic year would test the endurance of the Class of 2024 more than usual, so he composed this letter to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":694,"featured_media":769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"yoast_head":"\nCarry the Boulder - The Citadel Magazine 2020<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/magazine-2020\/2020\/09\/carry-the-boulder\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Carry the Boulder\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An open letter to the Class of 2024 This summer, with the shock effects of the pandemic reverberating across every facet of daily life, rising Charlie Company Commander Cadet Christian Seidler realized that the coming academic year would test the endurance of the Class of 2024 more than usual, so he composed this letter to […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/magazine-2020\/2020\/09\/carry-the-boulder\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Citadel Magazine 2020\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-28T19:02:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-13T19:06:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/magazine-2020\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/212\/Christian-Seidler-Magazine-Online.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Web Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Web Admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.citadel.edu\\\/magazine-2020\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/carry-the-boulder\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.citadel.edu\\\/magazine-2020\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/carry-the-boulder\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Web Admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.citadel.edu\\\/magazine-2020\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a36c2cfc4450a1df19b02eab76ed8573\"},\"headline\":\"Carry the Boulder\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-28T19:02:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-13T19:06:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.citadel.edu\\\/magazine-2020\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/carry-the-boulder\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1402,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.citadel.edu\\\/magazine-2020\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/carry-the-boulder\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.citadel.edu\\\/magazine-2020\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/212\\\/Christian-Seidler-Magazine-Online.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Featured\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.citadel.edu\\\/magazine-2020\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/carry-the-boulder\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.citadel.edu\\\/magazine-2020\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/carry-the-boulder\\\/\",\"name\":\"Carry the Boulder - 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