The Taft

(Yes, I know it looks like Hogwarts)

The Taft School.

There's a reason I saved this place for its own blog post - it's kinda important.

As you may know, I transferred from the public school system to the private in 8th grade, first attending the junior boarding school Rumsey Hall then eventually The Taft School, a rather prestigious boarding school in the United States.

It's time to be honest - the only reason I was able to attend Taft was because my stepmother works there. Truth is, Taft is probably manageable for most high school students, my self included, but first you have to get accepted. That is really the hard part. There are typically over 1700 applicants and they only select roughly 100-150 students. If you've never taken economics, this is what would be called a competitive market. Not only are there an insane amount of applicants, most of them sport resumes with incredibly high GPA's or star studded athletic careers - and sometimes both. Taft is an intimidating environment for a typical academic or athletic student, to say the least.

Without my stepmothers influence, I truly do not believe I would have be able to go to Taft and it is something I wish I could thank her for every day. Never have I told her this because I know she would say something like "You did it by going to Rumsey first and getting your self familiar with prep school". Sure, I did do that, but let me tell you Pilar, it didn't mean shit when it came to Taft. You, my mother & father, a select few members of the Rumsey faculty, and the man who checked off the accepted box are all people who got me to where I am today. Some credit is due my way, but most of it yours.

There's not really a way to say how Taft impacted me. It had its pros and cons like any high school. The pros of Taft are the relationships you can build with faculty. While I find my self at odds with many of Taft's faculty, the one's I have relationships with are some of the most important influences in my life - namely Pam MacMullen, and Ken Hincker.

Pam is an incredible person. Pam teaches English at Taft, but more importantly she was my advisor for 3 official years (but she's really been one the whole time I've known her) I'd known them prior attending Taft because I became good friends with their kids - Johnny and Tom - at Rumsey Hall School.

Pam MacMullen was the person who was there for me...all the time...no matter what. Taft was not an easy place for me to adjust to for the reasons above - I just thought the kids were better than me. It was the only time in my life that I was on the brink of being legitimately depressed, missing the friends I'd made at Rumsey and the friends I grew up with. I don't know what it was about her as an advisor and friend that helped me, but she was able to calm me down and focus my thoughts. I remember starting off my Taft career with a C overall. However, every semester thereafter, my GPA rose, even if it was by a single .1. This was a direct effect of Pam MacMullen constantly encouraging me. There are some people in life, excluding family, that care for you, want to see you succeed, and will sacrifice time out of their lives to do so - that's what Pam and the MacMullen family as a whole did for me.



(((Mrs. Mac, I know I've told you this many times before, but you deserve to hear it every day: You're a wonderful, caring person who I owe much of my success too - both in my academic career and life in general. Thank you for being there for me then and today still.)))

Ken Hincker was an English teacher at Taft and he really opened my eyes about literature. Prior to my senior year, English class was not one of my strong suits and in fact, I'd say I had pleasure in hating it the first two years there. Ken taught my senior elective "Dystopian Literature" where we read books like 1984, A Clockwork Orange, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This class was so damn fun. I'd never known the different levels of meaning and interpretation literature could have until this class. That's what attracted me - how you can read the same chapter a few different times and every time it can have a new meaning depending on the perspective you chose to read it in. How awesome is that? Ken is the man I owe my major choice too - it's because his class that I study English now. Go ahead, ask me what I'll do with that degree like every one else...

(((Thanks, Ken. You truly did help mold me into the student I am today. Had I never taken your class, I don't know what I'd be doing in college. I'd probably just being a business major or something super generic, but I'm not. I'm doing what I like because you helped me discover that.)))

Then there's the kids. Man, I miss those guys. I don't mean to leave anyone out, but Remo, Flath, Simonds, Kenyon, McCellan, Nej, Valle, Wesson, Sperry, the Junior boys and a buncha other classmates...what the hell would we have done had we not had each other? I mean for real, think about Taft without your friends. We'd be talking about something completely different...hell, actually. The friendships I made there mean just as much to me as every thing else I learned academically. I still talk to most of you, but for those classmates that I don't talk too anymore or were never friends with in the first place, thank you. Because without you guys, Taft would not have been Taft.



      

I just want to reiterate how much this experience meant to me. I am Peter Linn because Taft and the people there helped me do this. I have many regrets, specifically that I didn't apply my self more, but I will always look back on Taft as one of the most important periods of my life. By the time I finished, I was no longer intimidated, I had tons of friends, I bettered my self, and ultimately I succeeded. Though Saint Michael's College wasn't my first choice, far from it actually, I don't believe I would have came here had Taft not been a part of my life. My so far great college career directly relates back to my time at Taft, which is yet another reason I appreciate it so much.

While we (the Taft student body) all have very strong feelings about the school, both positive and negative ones, we can certainly agree that it was an important time for all of us. I miss it for sure, but I couldn't be happier where I am today.

Oh yeah... Since this blog is supposed to be for Ireland and I've written 3 posts already but yet to step foot there, I'd suggest to keep following. While in Ireland, thats all the blog will be about, but when I'm not, it's gonna be a different story...

Patience

I have never been a patient person – you can ask my family, friends, and probably even acquaintances, and they’ll all tell you the same thing. Why? Usually I don’t want to wait for good things to happen…I want them now. Unfortunately, I’ve lived with this my whole life. Since I was a regular old toddler, I wanted to be on my schedule and mine only. Growing up mostly with a single father will do this to you. Spending 75% of your time in a testosterone filled household with a father who works can do something to a kid. Its what I became used to…doing things aggressively and when I wanted too, well, because that’s what dad did and that’s what I knew. There have been many points in life where this has been used for my benefit, such as my short-lived sports career, and there has been times where it does nothing but mentally destroy me.

            

I am not depressed and I am grateful for that everyday as I’ve seen what it can do to people, however, certain things can cause any individual mental stress. 

“But be patient…”

Well screw off, I want to see my Vikings beat your Patriots in the Super bowl now, I want to see my niece Ava grow into a beautiful woman and my brother to grow up to be a stud…I want to see that now. I want some one to do something about ISIS, I want the refugee crisis to be controlled so that thousands of desperate people don’t die. I want my friends to figure their life out because it contributes to mine more than they know. And I want consistent happiness. I want it now.

"I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now", said Freddie Mercury. 

(the legend himself)

What’s so wrong with wanting now instead of tomorrow? I've learned that sometimes it just isn't possible right now. The Vikings need to figure out their offensive line situation, my brother and Ava still have a decade of childhood memories to fill, big shot politicians need to take a much more unified and aggressive stand against ISIS as well as figuring out ways to aid the refugee crisis. Once all this happens, if it ever does, it's a good thing. And you know what? Good things take time no matter how soon I want to change it. 

I know this to be true yet I still find myself falling back on this feeling of impatience. I currently have a few things happening in my life, namely a trip to study in Ireland (oh, but there are others). This is again something I have no patience for. After working on getting my GPA up and going through the appeal process, I am able to go abroad. And since I've worked so damn hard, I want to leave and I want to leave now. But I'm trying to come to terms with waiting because in the end, I know it will be an experience I relish in. I'm sure in the moment I am never going to want to leave Ireland...

Still, I leave behind friends for a whole semester, and that scares me. This word "friend" means something a lot more now than it ever has in my life. While there is no question I will take full advantage of my time overseas, making new friends and seeing the world, there is also no doubt that I will constantly think about my group of friends back at Saint Michaels College. They mean far too much to me to just "forget" about for a few months. So my patience will be tested again and I already know it - question is how I will tackle it. 

                

I can be patient, just remember that if possible “I'd want it all and I'd want it now” (thanks Freddie, love the lyric). But I've realized the best of things take patience because well, having things handed to you is far to easy. The parts of life that are tough, stressful, and time consuming yield the most rewarding results and I intend to be apart of those results for the rest of my life, starting now, even if it means I have to change.

The Importance

At last the time is here. Studying abroad in Ireland...

The once in a lifetime opportunity. The experience that will forever change me. 

Who'd of truly thought that I'd make it here? You know, doing what I want to do. Had you known me seven or eight years ago, your perspective of me might be different. I was a regular kid who attended public school till 8th grade, when I moved to the private system and repeated 8th grade. That private school was Rumsey Hall and it forever changed my life. Education had a completely different meaning. The material wasn't unlike what I would've been learning in public school, and the pace was relatively similar... that wasn't it. The difference laid in how much the community as a whole valued education, which translated to a rather truthful tradition: care about school. If you care, you will succeed. And that’s what I did, coming from a background of not caring about school at all. I was a C student at best throughout my career in public school, but in private it hovered around a B (...and that might be a little generous). If you want a quick laugh, here is a picture of me around this transitional time:

(I kept the girls in to make it a little less funny)

This is not to say public school is worse, or that private school is some kind of saving grace, because its not. In fact, there are many days I wish I never went at all. I felt guilty leaving my friends, the original friends. It’s a hard thing to toil with while growing up with divorced parents. Do I take moms side or do I take dads side? Do I stay with my friends or do I go to private school and, maybe, make new friends? It was too much mental stress during the awkward middle school years. But that is beside the point, because what I'm saying is that my private school experience is what made me value education. People experience this in different ways; sometimes it's with guidance or sometimes with a sudden spark of curiosity. For me, it was guidance that made me fully aware. The guidance made me realize that I didn't need to make decisions between this and that, like my parents or friends, but that I needed to make decisions based on what was best for me as a human. Choosing private school was the first step towards the success I now lay in today. 

What does that have to do with me studying abroad? 

Everything...

In the span of seven years I spent in private school, my mind opened. I found interests. I found out all the traveling I had done in my life up unto that point was worth something. I'm lucky enough to have the greatest father in the world, who blessed me with opportunity after opportunity to travel alongside him while he worked for Zurich Insurance. As a child I marveled in the all the different places because, you know, romanticism and all that (see: W. Wordsworth and S. Coleridge). But for real...I was able to see places like Singapore, China, Germany, Austria, and Puerto Rico before the age of ten. People who are in my life on a day-to-day basis don't realize how much I relished in those experiences, especially as a kid, and how much they are apart of who I am. Every one of those trips has been with me ever since. While these trips really opened my eyes to the world, in a physical sense, I didn't understand how valuable it was until private school. Private school taught me that I could use education with these experiences to create myself.

College is just the cement to this already structured foundation. Here I've expanded even more. Coming from a rather conservative background, I've found myself becoming more open to liberal ideals. Before coming to college, I'd of considered myself a conservative, but now I am a libertarian. It was a combination of blinding myself to other peoples opinions, and of course my surroundings. Though my pops might like to poke fun at my changed persona, which has admitted changed somewhat, I am not different; I am just more aware of who I am. If you want another quick laugh, to perhaps see how much I've changed since the photo above, here is a much more current one:

(yes, those are women's sunglasses) 

I mean what is the purpose of traveling around the world and seeing symbolic monuments, being on landscapes that people dream of, and meeting new people, if you don't understand what this can bring out in you. It can bring out new life, a purpose, a reason to keep learning and a reason to keep going. Traveling is the best drug around. Every time you hop off a plane, it’s a new high. Every person you meet is a new high. Every piece of history you see is a new high. I mean literally every single time... and its because the world is so vastly unique that new discoveries are endless.  

And that’s what I am trying to do in Ireland. I am going to a place I've never been to before and expect nothing but a new outlook on life. Going in with expectations has consistently proven to disappoint me, so what’s the point of continuing this trend? Using everything I've ever learned about the importance of education and experience, I will make this a trip of "conscious endeavor", as Thoreau said, and you're welcome to be a part of it.