MESSAGE FROM THE
HEADMASTER A Fateful Stop, A Wonderful Return
I
T WAS the winter of my senior year of college.
After my meeting with Uncle
I was home in Bedford for Christmas vacation
Henry and a brief, three-year
and was trying to find a job, exploring a
banking stint in New York City, I
number of avenues and talking to anyone I
took my first teaching and coaching
could.
job at Avon Old Farms.
One late Sunday afternoon, I headed to
Five years later, I was newly
Greenwich to meet with my father’s college
married and took a job at
roommate: Uncle Henry, as we called him,
Brunswick. Ten and 12 years later,
was the head of an insurance company with a
respectively, my two sons became
well-respected analyst-training program.
Brunswick students.
I arrived in Greenwich about 15 minutes early. As I was meeting him at his house, I thought it would be rude to show up too far in advance, so
And 19 years later, I became Headmaster. Now, as I look back on that
I looked for a place to kill some time. I drove down the street — I’d never been on the road before — and found the parking lot of a school. I pulled in and sat in the car for about 10 minutes. The campus was deserted, but I got a good sense of the place as I looked around. And that place — as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now — was Brunswick School. I was 20 years old. I hadn’t yet considered (even for a minute)
Sunday afternoon,
I JUST SUSPECT THAT, MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, THINGS HAPPEN FOR A REASON — THAT THERE’S A GREATER PLAN OUT THERE THAN IS READILY APPARENT, THAT WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND.
that I might be a teacher. It’s now more than 30 years later — and, the older I get, the more I believe in fate. I don’t subscribe to any complex theory. I just suspect that, more often than not, things happen for a reason — that there’s a greater plan out there than is readily apparent, that what goes around comes around.
I’m amazed. I sat in my car knowing nothing about how significant Brunswick School would eventually become in my life — killing a few
tion with a place I initially only knew by name.
minutes in an empty parking
But as a result, I felt far more familiar with it on
lot before a job interview down
the day I arrived.
the street. My life could have gone in so many different directions. But fate — to me a surprising phenomenon that pops up every
Marcus Aurelius said: “Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.” I love the people with whom fate has brought
once in a while, an otherwise random event that
me together. And I love Brunswick School with
(through an unexpected connection) causes deep
all my heart.
reflection and gratitude — brought me back to Brunswick. And I’m so glad it did. That first, unexpected association with Brunswick provided an odd but genuine connec-
Thomas W. Philip
WWW.BRUNSWICKSCHOOL .ORG
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