Senior of the Week: Ian Rider
Ian Rider (far left) with friends. Courtesy of Ian Rider.
By Lina Huang
Even before Exeter, Ian Rider had seen quite a bit of the world. The Main Street proctor, cross country runner and cyclist moved to New Hampshire from his home in Los Angeles, lived briefly in London, where he went to school on an island, and has travelled to Japan twice through Exeter
Among Rider’s favorite memories are ones from his travels. “My upper year, on a term abroad, we took one big trip just all across Japan. I remember, when we went to this temple, I heard this monk do basically stand up comedy in Japanese. So it was just this bunch of high schoolers among a crowd of old Japanese people, listening to this monk do stand up,” Rider said.
Rider’s spirit of adventure brought him to Exeter. Long before he could apply, Rider had already become fascinated with the Academy. He first encountered Exeter while touring boarding schools with his brother. “I remember trying to convince my brother to go, even though I had no stake in it. When I was applying, it was just a natural choice to me,” he said. “It was like nothing I'd ever experienced before, and I felt like I'd have a lot more opportunities there than I would otherwise.”
As his Exeter career comes to a close, Rider has come to think back on all the joys the Academy has brought him. Particularly in quarantine, Rider has realized how much he enjoys Harkness. “It's dawned on me how I'm not going to have a community where people are so practiced and good at engaging in intellectual discussions,” Rider said. “You get a chance to just uncover something new in class.”
Rider will also miss his dorm, Main Street, on the far north of campus. “I actually think Main Street’s location is actually one of the best parts of the dorm because that creates a really familial environment where you just know everybody,” he said.
Upper Thomas Guo noted the strong bonds between the denizens of Main Street, where Rider has organized dorm events as a proctor. “He’s a fun and interesting guy to be around, and we often play board games or video games together. Last year, I remember when we went to the library together because we both had a research paper to do. After working for a few hours, we took a break to go to Elm and made some cinnamon toast,” he said.
Rider runs in the cross country team, engaging with Exeter’s streets, woods and general landscape. “Especially because I grew up in a city, I really appreciate getting to know every nook and cranny of a small New England town,” he said. “You also just have these great conversations while you're running because you're just out in the woods, hopping over rocks and stuff.” An avid cyclist, Rider has also explored farmland in New Hampshire.
Though cycling is a meditative experience, it incorporates more teamwork than cross country. “Working with their team is part of the sport, where in the road races, the big thing is that if you're on the front, you're taking on the wind, which means that you need to help your team,” he said. “It's also such a huge time commitment that you end up enjoying it, and you even end up enjoying the three hour bus rides where you stop off in a rural gas station.”
Rider recalled the cycling team’s celebration after their second-to-last race, for which the team traveled to a lake north of Exeter. “We just go to this lake and jump in after the race. It's pretty much just charge in and get soaked in the freezing cold and then just like sit in it on the bus on the way back,” he reminisced.
Upper Josh Lum met Rider on the cycling team, where he was struck by Rider’s energy and enthusiasm. “I was at a cycling race with Ian at Louden,” he said. “I remember, near the end in the last few laps, Ian was tired, he was hungry and he thought he couldn’t go on, but he kept pushing. He always kept pushing through the pain, and he did it consistently, every race. He always gave it his all during the races, and it was awesome to race with him.”
Rider’s guidance also helped senior Mouhamed Gaye, who trained with Rider. Gaye recalled a team trial at a Nascar speedway, in which he competed with Rider. “Our strategy was to periodically rotate our positions in the paceline in order to preserve energy and allow for recovery. In training with Josh and I and devoting so much to the sport and the team, Ian helped us reach a point in which we were in sync as a team, and didn't even need verbal cues to know when one of us was tired and needed to switch off,” Gaye said. “We would just glance at each other, and we knew it was time to switch, or time for the next race tactic.”
Though he is a talented cyclist, Rider stands out for his commitment to the team. “Amongst other things, Ian brings a very non sibi attitude to cycling and puts the team before himself. Furthermore, in such a work-oriented and often distressing place like Exeter, Ian's vibrant attitude and sociable personality brings joy to others. I'll definitely miss being on a team with him and getting to ride together”
This same attitude stood out to senior Elizabeth Fier, who remembered Rider’s audacious stunts. “He never feared the things that he admittedly knew were a little advanced (which is probably why you may have seen him on the bike rollers getting things thrown at him at Relay For Life). Ian is awesome, and I’ll miss long bus rides with him singing Poker Face by Lady Gaga on our way to cycling races,” she said.
In addition to cycling, Rider has committed himself to studying Japanese. He entered Exeter’s Japanese program to learn more about his heritage. “I'm actually a quarter Japanese. My mom doesn't speak the language, though my grandfather does, but I think my mom really encouraged me to do it because Japanese is something that’s starting to get lost with my generation,” he said.
In class, Rider went beyond the curriculum to learn more Japanese. “For the tests, we were encouraged to learn extra kanji, the Chinese borrowed characters, and, for every one that we used, we got one bonus point out of 100. What me and my friend started doing is that we would learn as many as possible, so it just sort of turned into a sport,” he said. “We would have learned like 30 kanji the night before, and all of our sentences would be like, ‘Yesterday, I put on a fox hat and attended a gala under the night sky.’”
Japanese Instructor Kayoko Tazawa noted Rider’s warmth and vibrancy.“He is always smiling. He has a great sense of humor and is ready to make a joke. Even after I gave a long talk about the importance of being serious in class (the students in class sometimes have too much fun in class), Ian would make a joke and break the serious tension of the class,” she said. “He is relaxed about everything, but he is brilliant and produces amazing work.” Tazawa taught Rider for all four years of his Exeter career.
The summer after his prep year, Rider attended the Japan Summer Program, wanting to improve his conversational Japanese. “I'd occasionally have a coherent exchange with someone, and I just thought it was the most fun thing in the world. It's so satisfying going to a country and speaking their native language,” he said.
Rider returned to Japan his senior year, where he learned more about Japanese culture. “What's crazy about Japan is that, because there's such a well-developed public transport system, they’ll send off their kids when they're like in elementary school. So I’ll be sitting on the train at six in the morning and there'll be three tiny children across from me,” he said.
Rider’s love of traveling flourished in Japan, where he was able to apply his learning from Exeter to experience more of the country. “When I learn new words, I can't wait to use them in a conversation, and that was basically what I spent the term doing: finding new ways to converse and just talking to people,” he said. “By traveling, I think you get a new perspective on the world that it's just not possible otherwise.”
Though he does not know what the future has in store, Rider knows he will keep broadening his horizons. “I don't really want to define career goals for myself because I just don't know; the things I applied for going into Exeter are totally different from what I apply for now, and in another four years, I'm going to be in a totally different place,” he said. “Traveling a lot is pretty much what I hope to have set out for me.”