What's My Day Like?

I'm in class with my friend and dorm-mate, Noah.

When we read Paradise Lost, we had an assignment to choose two characters from the book and one other character from literature, film, TV or real life and have the three interact in a play that involves a serious conflict. So I chose Satan and God from the book and had them be candidates for president, and the play was one of their debates, which was monitored by Jim Lehrer from PBS News.

The contrast between the two and the conflict itself were greatly exaggerated since God and Satan are, themselves, exaggerated representations of political candidates.

Learn more about English at Exeter…

It's hard to say what I'll be doing at this time. Today I am doing homework for Capitalism and Its Critics, and joking around with my friends, Emily and Casey.

Since I'm the president of StuCo [student council], I often schedule meetings with committees during this time. So, I might meet with the Recreation Committee head and the directors of Student Activities – Ms.Lembo and Ms. McGahie – to discuss events that the student council will sponsor.

Most people have the format free on Thursday, so I have meetings with students then. On other days I try to have meetings with faculty members or staff, or I do my homework. It's never the same thing.

Meditation is one of my favorite meetings of the week. It's not required, but I wish everyone went.

What I like about it is that I get to hear adults in the Exeter community talk about events or experiences that have shaped their life. I get to feel closer to them and better understand who they are.

It's pretty much the same group that goes every time, and it becomes intimate in that sense. I love going to it.

Here, I'm leaving meditation with my friends Noah and David.

This is one of my favorite classes.

I love history, and history from an economic standpoint is something that fascinates me because it's something I don't know much about.

And Mr. Giblin is a genius. He was an economist in Ireland and still flies to exotic places on the weekends.

He's able to take the class to a whole new level of understanding.

Learn more about English at Exeter…

We've done eight problems the night before, and at the beginning of class we get in groups and put them up on the board.

Ms. Babecki tries to stand back and let us get it first, and she comes in to facilitate when we need her. Then we all sit down at the table and go through the problems one by one.

We don't always get them right, but the class helps you find the right answers or a shorter way to get to them.

Learn more about Mathematics at Exeter...

Lunch is another place where you have discussions outside the class.

We might continue a conversation from our philosophy class about whether we can prove that God exists, and then the conversation might somehow switch to be about politics, girls, sports or vacation. 

We call this table in Elm Street Dining Hall the Wentworth table named after my dorm.

On this day, I went to the gym to book space for the Juggling and Unicycling Club.

I founded the juggling and unicycle club last year, and we have 30 or 40 members.

About 10 show up each week, and we invite new people to come.

What I've always liked about the club is that jugglers and unicyclers are so rare. To be with 10 others is awesome.

I've been unicycling since 8th grade and juggling since 6th.

Josh is my lab partner, and he's holding a match to burn a string, and when he releases the string, we see that the ruler falls faster than the marbles, which has to do with the torque on the ruler.

This is AP Physics, and the labs are my favorite part. I like to see everything we've been doing put into practical situations, and I like to think that what I'm learning is applicable to real world situations.

Learn more about Science at Exeter...

My main goal as student council president is to improve communication so students know what's going on in student council —to get them more involved in the decision-making.

Another goal of ours is to add weekend events to the calendar.

Now we have the toga dance at the beginning of fall term, and in the winter we have the winter carnival with everything from sledding to ice sculpting.

We're going to have a spelling bee, too, in the late winter or early spring.

The adviser to the student council is Mr. Ibbotson.

My English teacher, Mrs. Flynn, lives in my dorm.

She's on duty one night a week and we often go and talk to her, eat food, play cards. She also has a piano and is a great pianist.

My favorite part of hanging out with faculty is getting to form strong relationships. They are adults that I look up to, respect and can have intelligent conversations with.

I've always loved the openness of Exeter teachers and the fact that I can go to them anytime.

Most of the time, when we are hanging out outside of class, it isn't about school. We may start with how our English class went that day, but then it will expand into everything: current issues, people in the dorm, people in the school, what we're going to do on vacation.