Grad at Grad Reflection by Hunter Bulkeley ('14)

write simply because I get lost in the examination of events while trying to determine exactly how I feel about the day.

Simply reflecting was not enough for me. My early reflections, both in and out of Loyola, were rather shallow and poorly written. Then came junior year and with it a class that would come to be the highlight of my day and the low point of my sleepless night, Mr. Gregory’s AP English Language and Composition Course. The entire first semester was devoted to puzzling over moral quandaries such as, “Is there beauty in death?” “Is torture every acceptable?” and “Is there such a thing as a just war?” Thanks to my reflections in previous years, I quickly came up with answers. Yes. No. No. But in an AP course, it is not enough to simply have the answers; we must be able to articulate them and present them in an ordered argument, giving concession to the other side. My normal extreme rants were quickly corrected by Mr. Gregory and I was sent back to rewrite and reconsider my ideas. This cycle of ranting, being challenged, and reconstructing the rant ultimately developed two very important characteristics. The first, the ability to think critically, allowed me to utilize the now familiar frame of reflection to its fullest potential. I began to pull apart my previous assumptions about my siblings, modern music, college, and myself. From a tool for academic papers, I was able to come to terms with long-standing anger issues as well as a reluctance to take any risk for fear of embarrassment.

The second tool I took away from that rigorous and rewarding class was the revolutionary concept that other people have different opinions from mine. Okay, yes, I knew people had different opinions before that, but I was neither able to see nor interested in seeing the world from their perspective. Thanks to the exchange of ideas during that first semester of AP English, this year’s philosophy course, and various day-long debates with my dad, I came to realize that other people tend to have perfectly acceptable reasons for their opinions and sometimes their ideas are far better than mine. I found it much harder to dislike or look down on people once I saw that their actions make perfect sense according to their priorities. For some people, school makes way for fun, for me, school is my fun.