Rats! Episode 30 – Plot? What Plot?

Oh my, someone’s in love. Romantic relationships in the VTCC were always interesting to watch. If you were a female cadet involved with a male cadet, it could be very damaging to your reputation. I remember on female spring rat who was accused of joining the VTCC simply because she wanted to be with her boyfriend, who had joined at the beginning of the year. You better believe I thought that was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard of. The girl in question went through all the same basic training with all the other spring rats, had to drag through the halls and speak up, suffer through inspections and initiations and all the other “joys” of being a rat, and people honestly thought she was only there for her boyfriend? Give me a frikkin’ break.

Guys could also suffer a hit to their reps if they were involved with a female cadet. Having a civilian girlfriend was one thing, but having a cadet girlfriend might make them seem soft or whipped for some reason. I never understood that one either. Regardless of all that, male and female cadets still got involved with each other, and I can recall some pretty strong relationships in the Corps while I was in. I even dated another cadet during my freshman year. It didn’t last, thankfully, because I met the man of my dreams my senior year. My husband was a civilian student at Tech, majoring in aerospace engineering. Two years after we first kissed, we were married. 17 years later, we have a house, two kids, two cats, two cars, etc. I’m very happy with the way things turned out.

But back to today’s cartoon. I got a bit of flak from some people when I decided to start a “story-line” in the cartoon, which was about a budding romance between Irwin Rat and Kitty Siam. I think today’s episode was the start of all that. Apparently some folks thought the whole story thing dragged. I did it anyway though, because quite frankly, if you draw a cartoon twice a week, every week for nine months of the year, you take all the ideas you can get and use them because you have a deadline to meet!

Did we have rats like Irwin, who did needlepoint and wooed the upperclassmen girls? Not exactly. We certainly had rats who didn’t fit the stereotypical mode. Yours truly is probably the best example of that. In any case, I think it’s safe to say that every cadet marched to the beat of a different drummer (when they weren’t marching in formation, that is).

I’ve heard from more than a few people who are about to start their freshmen year with the VTCC. Thanks for all the feedback and comments guys! My apologies for not responding yet. I just got back from vacation in Toronto and am trying to catch up with a lot of work. I wish all this year’s incoming rats the best of luck with “Cadre Week” (that’s what it was called back in my day), and just remember, be careful how you do your shirt tuck. You don’t want to give yourself a nasty wedgie.