While in the pipeline, keep your head down and powder dry. Do your home work and put in the required hours (I was on voluntary 10's for all of A school and 90% of power school (boned the second RP test, got like a 3.0 on it 'cause a very good friend of mine had just offed himself and the 3.0 was so unusual for me that my section advisor put me on suggested 10's for two weeks)). Regardless of what you may have learned in school, the terms 'voluntary' and 'suggested' are subjective the way the Nav uses them. Essentially, they mean the same as 'mandatory' hours (ie. you have to put them in whether you want to or not, voluntary, huh!), except that you are higher in the food chain in class rankings (voluntary being the highest, then suggested, then mandatory, and finally ordered hours). But regardless of your class standing, unless you want some plum assignment or school that you may or may not get due to the "needs of the Navy," if you pass all the way through to the fleet you will find that the 'Mando Commandos' get paid the same as the guys like me that were on voluntary 10's for the majority of the time. Of course, while going to school, getting good grades does open up some nice perks. Because I did so well in A school, I got picked up to teach in the lube oil lab for five months (of course your A school is totally different than mine was (Alas poor NFAS, I knew you well...)). Also, because I did study hard when I did study, my good grades got me out of school an hour early on those days that the last hour was study hall (most days). This allowed me to get back to the barracks and catch a nap before my classmates got out of school. Of course, this may no longer be feasible with power school up in Charleston now (you'll have to ask someone that went there). Either way, my good grades and early qualification at NPTU ensured that I had a choice when it came to becoming a staff pick up, becoming a subdude, or picking a school such as ELT school or welding school. In reality, I turned down the SPU position and sub duty, but elected to go to ELT school. But for me, because they needed people for both sub and spu billets, the staff put alot of pressure on me to volunteer. For one of the few times in the Nav, I had the actual power to say no to something. But this lesson will apply to all of your adult life whether in or out of the Nav. The cliche is true, "Knowledge is Power." After I got out and went to work for GE as a field engineer, by studying hard in GE's schools, busting my butt on the jobsite, and writing excellent reports, I got to the point that not only did I have my choice of assignments but I actually got to pick who management would hire as my boss once (we had a horrible boss at the time that needed to be replaced, I would have been first choice, but I did not want to move to Tampa, so our boss's boss called me to ask which of two of my peers that I would recommend for the job (pretty nice, I think)).
Ditto on graydragon: DO NOT DRINK!
Also, DO NOT LET GIRLS get in the way of school (met my first wife at prototype and she had a substantial affect on my ELT school grades (definitely not 2.5 and survive, but significantly lower that the >3.6 I had in power school (then again after bootcamp, A school, power school and prototype maybe I was just getting burned out (liar! she had you thinking with the wrong head (oh yeah, that's right)))). Either way, girls will always be there and, although it seems forever, school will soon be over.
Finally, when the school day or workday is over and all of your study and work is done, get as far away from other squids and the Nav as you can. Meet normal people, do normal things. I know this is hard while in the pipeline, but when you get to the fleet don't forget there is life beyond the Nav.
