Getting lost, walking alone, experiencing exhaustion, all experiences one faces when on a journey. Finding what you’re looking for isn’t always easy, knowing what to do when you can’t, tests who you are.

Land navigation is a practical test that evaluates cadets’ abilities to find points by providing them with grid coordinates, four during the day and three at night.

After completing land navigation, Victoria Cartagena, St. Joseph’s University, 9^th Regiment, Advanced Camp, reflected on her experiences both with finding her way in life and on the land navigation course.

“This course was a lot harder than anything I’ve done before,” Cartagena said.

The military base Cartagena’s program uses for land navigation is a little over an hour’s drive away. Because of the distance, they don’t have much time to practice their land navigation skills.

“We usually go to Fort Dix like twice a year,” Cartagena said. “Once a semester, to practice land nav, so that’s the only other course I’ve been on.”

At Advanced Camp, land navigation is a two-day event. Cadets who get at least six out of seven points don’t have to repeat it the second day.

Cartagena was among the cadets who did not get the required points on her first attempt during the day.

“It was a little disheartening,” Cartagena said.

Before conducting night land navigation, she spoke with her battle buddies. The tips they gave her made a difference on her following attempts.

“I found two this morning, and I found two last night, so it definitely helped a lot,” Cartagena said.

Having people who care that she’s on the right path is something Cartagena has experienced outside of cadet summer training. After graduating high school, she wanted to enlist in the Army.

“I wanted to enlist initially because I didn’t really have a direction that I wanted to go in career wise,” Cartagena said.

Her mom advised her on the importance of prioritizing her education.

“She said, ‘If you’re going to do it, you’re going to college first and you can do ROTC if that’s what you really want to do.’ So, I did,” Cartagena said.

None of Cartagena’s family are military affiliated.

“It was a lot of just trial and error, trying to figure out what I needed, what I had to learn,” Cartagena said.

Cartagena had peers in her program that understood what it felt like to be lost. Most of them are prior service or served part-time in the National Guard or reserve.

The experiences they’ve had in the Army were something that she identified with and helped her to understand the team she was joining.

“The Army’s great for meeting people from everywhere who have been through the exact same thing where they are from one place,” Cartagena said. “They go somewhere, they know absolutely nobody, but you make friends really easily that way.”

During her time at Cadet Summer Training, connecting with her peers has reflected that.

“You’ve probably heard this from some people here, or like from cadre before, but everyone here is just embracing the suck,” Cartagena said. “We’re going through it together so we’re all the same and because everyone’s going through the same thing, it makes it easy to connect to one another.”

Thanks to her experiences in the ROTC program and the assistance from family and peers, Cartagena has a plan for where she’s going next.

“I think now that I’ve gone through ROTC and I’ve gone through three almost now four years of college, I’ve gotten that direction that I needed and I figured out what I really wanted to do, because I had a general idea, but I’ve really found a focus of what I want to continue doing.”

Cartagena’s top choice is to branch Chemical. When she returns to school this fall, she will be interviewing for branches and find out whether she is eligible for active duty.

“The military has been like a career field of mine in my mind since I was younger,” Cartagena said. “I’d like to go active, but whatever takes me, takes me.”