The Legacy

Let me just start by saying that the Exeter I expected on my first day of lower year and the Exeter I now leave behind are two entirely different beasts. I am not saying I was some dewy-eyed kid walking into my first real high school experience. I received plenty of “experience” at my previous school. I spent a year at a Kentucky public school where, at times, I was afraid to lift my gaze from the floor when walking from class to class. The “Advanced English” there was just a step above remedial. People could barely read. Needless to say, I wasn't happy.

A friend of mine, Dylan Farrell, started out at this magical place at the end of eighth grade, and he wouldn't stop talking about “Phillips Exeter Academy.” (It was always Phillips Exeter Academy, never Exeter, PEA, or Phillips Exeter. He had to say the entire thing.) My family and I decided to submit an application and go through the admissions process to Exeter and Exeter alone. I didn't know anything about any of the other New England prep schools, and this place sounded incredible. Great food, lots of cool clubs (including a surf club!), and it was ten miles from the beach! And, of course, I hoped that I might be challenged academically. The day I received my acceptance letter and an award of full financial aid was one of the greatest in my life. The way they worded that letter, telling me how special and how lucky I was to have been one of the select few offered admission at Phillips Exeter Academy, honestly gave me a bit of an ego boost for the remainder of my time in public school. I was ready for what I felt I deserved after a year of what I could only think of at the time as torture. Three years later, everything has changed.

Writing this two weeks before graduation, I can honestly say that the food isn't as brilliant as they made it seem in the brochure, I don't think Surf Club's met once since I've been here, and unless you're a day student, going to the beach just doesn't happen. I can also say, however, that I've meet some incredible people, faculty and students alike, done things I never could have dreamed of back in Kentucky and learned what it means to be non sibi. The guys in Knight House I have to leave in two weeks are now my brothers, each and every one of them incredible in his own light. My advisor, Dr. Curwen, has become a grandmother figure for me and influenced my life in such a remarkably positive way. I've been able to realize my academic dreams in taking countless science courses, which led to my decision to head down to Eckerd College for Marine Biology next year. I learned how to play the banjo and the guitar, became a radio DJ, played competitive ultimate frisbee, built a longboard, backpacked through the mountains of Tucson, Arizona with NOLS, got through my 333 and jumped off a freaking bridge. All of these are unique experiences that this school and its financial help have been able to offer me. I am deeply grateful for the things I've done and the things that I have been set up to do. I now understand what non sibi truly means. What I have been able to do, all that I have achieved both inside and outside of the classroom, was only made possible by the generosity of donors, coaches, teachers and everyone else who have anything to do with making this place run smoothly. I only hope that in my travels, from this moment forward, I can look back and continue to carry out the legacy they set forth.