“I Saw Everything As A Challenge”: Learning Tactical Patience At West Point

West Point was always in the background when Brandi Braggs was a child. Her parents both graduated from the Military Academy in 1994, and her maternal grandmother instilled in her the values of the honor code. When Brandi started Beast Barracks, she quickly realized that her parents had only told her the good stuff about life as a Cadet. “Beast was so bad! It never got better,” Brandi recalls, noting that at one point during her first semester, she began researching flights home. After Christmas break her Plebe year, everything began to click, and Brandi began figuring out how to thrive at West Point. She decided to major in American History, became a Writing Fellow at the Mounger Writing Center, the Editor-in-Chief of “Report,” the undergraduate history journal, and is on the leadership team of the Diversity Forum. She decided to branch Engineer, and is looking forward to being stationed at Ft. Hood. In this interview, she talks about her childhood, her family’s military history, and her West Point experiences. She discusses the culture at West Point, and explains how the Academy is changing with the times. She highlights the importance of diversity, and recalls being on a panel for the “Honorable Living Day.” She reflects on the COVID-19 semester and how the pandemic has shaped her final year at the Academy. Finally, she reflects on what West Point means to her.