EVERYTHING
FOR YOUR FAMILY
Teen Years
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After one final hug, my parents made their way to the airport, and on a balmy September evening in Boston, I realized I was alone for the very first time. But before tears could be shed, I had met many of the 40 freshmen with whom I would live. I quickly became friends with my neighbors and hall-mates, and since my first night at Andover there has been no looking back. The decision to leave idyllic Newport Beach, and a school at which I had spent my entire academic career, for Phillips Academy, in Andover, Mass., was hardly easy, but I only needed hours to confirm my place when I received my admittance in April. I was impressed by the school's past: When visiting, I was stunned by a plaque commemorating George Washington's speech to the first class during the Revolutionary War, and later was shocked to find that I would join the 223rd class. Academically, the school offered what I sought: a great challenge, and universities' recognition of this. Outside the classroom, the school offered many travel and enrichment options. The deal sealer: The students I met seemed to be having the times of their lives. But I must admit that my decision was not totally based on such immaculate logic: Like many high school students, I was itching to abandon my hometown and never look back. I saw boarding school as a great way to spend my teenage years away from the overbearing eyes of parents. The experience has been incredible: I have learned U.S. history from a published author; played and discussed jazz with Wynton Marsalis; and heard lectures from dozens of national and international figures. Outside class, I remember lazy afternoons on Boston's Common and weekend trips to New York. In failures as well as successes, I have been stretched. While I would change little of the last three years, the experience has certainly changed me. Older and (I would like to think) wiser, I look forward to coming home. Somehow blind to whatever annoyances I saw before, I even find myself (gasp) appreciating life with my parents, a feeling unimaginable to many high schoolers still at home. It's true that I wanted independence, and I have it, but in the process I discovered that nothing beats occasional visits to doting parents who make your meals, clean your laundry, and pay for your outings - all small pleasures which all students who leave home come to miss. My relationship with my parents, too, has changed, but for the better. The short length of vacations prompts us all to appreciate the positive in each other. Somehow, the house is remarkably tension-free - a state of affairs which once seemed impossible. And while Orange County is still the endless, somewhat bland suburb I call home, I have come to appreciate its beauty, weather, and most of all its laid-back lifestyle, all of which I had to abandon before I took note. Going east for high school taught me that sometimes leaving one life is the only way to appreciate how good it is. Jeremy Beecher of Corona del Mar was an intern with Churm Publishing, Inc. this past summer. |
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