Category: Article

My great-grandfather gave my grandfather his first rifle, a single-shot .22, for his eighth Christmas. Age nine earned Grandpa full responsibility over the family’s 80 x 150 ft. vegetable garden. By age 10, Grandpa was taking his flat-bottomed rowboat out on the Mississippi.  These are great experiences for a young man, and they lead to creativity, toughness, and a host of other wonderful traits, perhaps most important among which are independence and responsibility. Risk free? No. Positive for my grandfather and his descendents? Absolutely. Sadly, many of these experiences just aren’t…

Over the summer I picked up a book from the freshman summer reading list that had been confronting me since I came home to The Heights a few years ago.  Quo Vadis:  the mere mention of the title strikes fear into the heart of many a student during the happy-go-lucky days of freshman summer.  I jest… sort of.  I think mostly this reaction is due to the shear length of the book; I’ve been there; I understand. Anyway, I took it on to experience what the troops are going through….