How Military School Taught Me Discipline and Growth

How Missouri Military Academy Helped One Eighth Grader Build Discipline and Confidence 

As part of Missouri Military Academy’s middle school capstone portfolio program in the spring 2026 semester, cadets were asked to reflect on their personal growth and experiences throughout the school year. These final reflections encouraged cadets to consider the lessons they learned, the challenges they overcame and the ways they developed during the past year. 

In this reflection, Cadet Santiago Maes, an eighth-grader from Overland Park, Kansas, shares how his time at MMA helped him build discipline, confidence, and independence. The son of Margaret and Luis Maes, Cadet Maes reflects on the impact of structure, accountability and stepping outside his comfort zone, offering thoughtful insight into his personal growth. He will return to MMA as a high school freshman in fall 2026. Learn more about the Maes’s family and their son’s MMA journey. 

How Military School Taught Me Discipline and Growth 

By Santiago Maes 

Growth and discipline are two words that mean different things in life. What do you believe growth and discipline mean, and how can you better yourself by learning these? 

Personally, I think going to a military school helped me and still helps me every day by learning and growing. Military school helped me learn discipline and growth by putting me in uncomfortable situations. What I mean by uncomfortable situations is times and places where you are not used to or have not experienced before. When you get put in different areas, you have to adapt differently. One thing my dad says to me a lot is that you grow the most in uncomfortable situations.  

Another way military school showed me discipline is by enforcing harder rules on the kids there. Things that maybe would slide back at home wouldn't slide at military school. A big thing that discipline helps with is impulse control. Back in their old lives, kids would be up late playing video games or eating, and not getting the quality rest that people need to be functioning members of society. When you learn and get used to not doing old bad habits, you change as a person, like me. For example, I used to always eat late at night and stay up late, and then I would lose energy for the next day.  

Military school also made me grow because I am way more self-independent now. What I mean by that is that before, at home, I used to have my mom do everything for me, but now there's no one to help me. I have to make my bed, keep my room always clean, and fold my clothes. Learning more self-independence makes me grow so much because I'm not so incapable, and I know now that I can do hard things. Another reason for putting me in an uncomfortable and hard situation made my self-confidence shoot through the roof.  

Military schools provide a different and more unique education experience that wouldn't be possible in public schools. Military education made me more self-aware of myself and my actions, and I now have good grades because the teachers actually care, unlike public schools, where there are 30 or more kids in each classroom. This makes me actually want to learn. After all, before I hated school, but now I see the importance of school and how it makes a difference in the long run. 

I think when people think of growth, they think of, “Oh, maybe if I make good choices and do things out of my comfort zone for one or two days, things will change in the long run.” The reality is you can't do anything in a day or two; it takes repetition. At a military academy, there are no days off; every day is a grind and a personal struggle. But doing the same thing every day helps you get into a schedule. And if you have a schedule of maybe only growing a small bit every day, you will see yourself better than ever before. Back at home, I could do whatever I wanted, and I would sometimes be like, “Alright, I'm locking in, and I'm going to put myself in uncomfortable situations,” but the next day I would relapse. The point of a schedule and repetition is so you get used to something. If you get used to something that makes you grow and learn discipline in a year, you're not even going to recognize yourself.