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Harlaxton 2016: Class Day and The Globe Theatre

July 19, 2016 | 2016 Harlaxton, 2016-2017, Avatars, Sherafghan Khan, Study Abroad | No Comments

By: Sherafghan Khan

This trip has been one of the best learning experiences I’ve had, and it has only been a few days since we arrived in England. One thing that I really like about London is the close proximity of different tourist hotspots and the ease of public transportation. To be honest, it feels almost unreal to be in one of the most infamous cities in the world.

Today started off with a quiz on the Taming of the Shrew and the life of William Shakespeare, followed by group discussions and a lecture on British culture. Also, Professor Rutledge discussed literary techniques that Jane Austen uses in her writing. He also told us that today is the 199^th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death. Derick then informed us that it was also Gatton RC Alex Sorrel’s birthday.

Once class concluded, my group of friends and I went to a famous restaurant called Nandos. After eating, we rented bicycles and biked to the massive Hyde Park. Even though we got lost on the way and had to ask multiple people for directions, it was still very fun to ride in the streets of a busy area like downtown London. It was a different experience than riding in my local neighborhood, but I am glad I did it. One challenge associated with this was getting used to cycling on the correct side of the road, since British drivers drive in the opposite lanes as American drivers. After riding bikes, we decided to check out a local department store known as Harrods. Although, we didn’t buy any items, the Wi-Fi there was great, which like most American teenagers is what my friends and I cared deeply about. Once we left Harrods we rode the underground railway system to our dorms and prepared for what we had been waiting for all day- the Taming of the Shrew at the Globe Theater.

The seats were packed and a massive crowd of fans filled up the theater; it was show time. Finally getting to see faces for the characters I had read about was a dream come true. The actors did an excellent job portraying the different characters. Not only did the actors use the entire stage, but they also relied on randomly chosen audience members in many scenes. The crowd roared in a fiasco with applause when the play concluded.

After the play we looked for a place to eat, and since we didn’t have internet access this task became cumbersome. Finally, after searching for one hour, a friend of mine spotted a McDonalds. Even though we wanted to eat local food on this trip, it was good to finally have a little taste of home.

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Harlaxton 2016: Chawton, Winchester, and London

July 18, 2016 | 2016 Harlaxton, 2016-2017, Avatars, Study Abroad, Veronica Johnson | No Comments

By: Veronica Johnson

Our third day in London has come to an end, and boy was today (Sunday) action packed! Yesterday in class we talked about Jane Austen and her novel Persuasion, so today we visited the places we had learned about. Our group spent our morning in Chawton, our afternoon in Winchester, and our evening in London, so we were traveling all over the place and walking a lot!

We left early this morning en route to Chawton, where we had a picnic on a church lawn, visited the graves of Jane Austen’s mother and sister, and toured Jane Austen’s house. Chawton is probably the most British-looking place I have ever seen: we were surrounded by thatched roofs, sheep, chickens, and horses.

We later went to Winchester, where we visited the Winchester Cathedral (the church where Jane Austen is buried) and completed the Keats’ Walk (the path that John Keats would walk daily). Along the path was a stream that a group of us waded in when we had completed our walk. The water was very cold, but it was very clear so we could see straight to the bottom of the stream: something scarcely found in Kentucky. When we got back to our dorms, we split off into groups to eat dinner and explore new parts of London.

The highlights of my day were watching crazy things unfold on the bus to Winchester, wading in the water at the end of the Keats’ walk, getting ice cream in Winchester, and trying a new restaurant called Cha Cha Moon in London!

A couple of days ago, my friends and I were talking about how crazy it is that we, as teenagers, get to travel across the world and explore new places with our friends. Being able to study abroad while still in high school is such a cool opportunity, and I am very grateful to be able to see the world while completing a college course. I am definitely looking forward to the rest of our time in London, especially going to Shakespeare’s Globe Theater to see The Taming of the Shrew!

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Harlaxton 2016: First Day of Class

July 18, 2016 | 2016 Harlaxton, 2016-2017, Avatars, Dylan Daugherty, Study Abroad | No Comments

By: Dylan Daugherty

There are two things that I absolutely hate in life: strawberries and waking up early. I’m always able to make exceptions though; like when the strawberries are covered in chocolate or on the first day of class. As soon as my alarm clock went off I hopped out of bed and into the shower. After about 20 minutes of bathing and trying to figure out British shower knobs, we headed out to class. Class began with our first quiz of the course. It covered one of our required summer readings and some background information on the author. Everyone was nervous but we all did just fine. Our wonderful professor, Dr. Walker Rutledge, continued the class with a lecture on proper writing techniques.

Once class was over, we had London to ourselves. Several of us headed straight downtown, but others preferred to nap. My group went to a small Indian restaurant on the backstreets. We then headed to the National Gallery and saw original works by Van Gough and Picasso. We were able to walk around and look at Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Parliament. Other groups went and rode the London Eye and saw the Portrait Museum.

As the evening concluded, groups headed back to the dorms and rested. As Gatton tradition, we all found a park to play a game of Frisbee. The students returned to class to watch a movie of one of our summers reading. Our first day of classes has been a success. Eager for another day of adventures, we all headed for bed.

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Harlaxton 2016: Stonehenge

July 16, 2016 | 2016 Harlaxton, 2016-2017, Amber Carroll, Avatars, Study Abroad | No Comments

By: Amber Carroll

Today was an interesting day to say the least. I’m pretty sure jet lag hit us all pretty hard. It’s also probably a pretty safe assumption that most of us mixed up our days a lot today too. We left Atlanta around 6:00 pm yesterday (Thursday), slept less than an hour, and woke up to breakfast and the plane somehow landing around 9:00 am in England. I think I speak for most of us when I say that the time change messed with our heads. One minute it’s daylight, another minute it’s dark, and then it’s daylight again. Instead of resting like any sane person would do, however, we decided to rely on adrenaline all day to keep us going, so we headed straight for Stonehenge.

When you hear people say that England is cold and rainy, they aren’t kidding. When we got off of the plane, it was overcast outside. It then started raining on the way to Stonehenge and continued to rain until it was almost time to leave. We encountered something else that messed with our heads on the way to Stonehenge—everything was backwards. People drove on the wrong side of the roads and the steering wheels were on the wrong sides of the cars. You wouldn’t think it’s that big of a deal, but it’s a little weird seeing people pass you on your right side instead of your left. Despite being freezing, wet, starving, and sleep deprived, there were a few people that kept us all going with their positivity. After all, you have all your life to be warm, be dry, eat, and sleep, but for most of us, you only get this one chance to visit Stonehenge. Thanks to those people, we managed to make the most out of a once in a lifetime opportunity at Stonehenge and made amazing memories with our closest friends. Seeing Stonehenge was definitely worth it.

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Harlaxton 2016: And We’re Off!

July 15, 2016 | 2016 Harlaxton, 2016-2017, Avatars, Katie Ashley, Study Abroad | No Comments

By: Katie Ashley

And we’re off! Our first day of adventure is complete. We met yesterday (Thursday) morning at the Louisville Airport, had a quick layover in Atlanta, and arrived in London this morning (Friday)!

Our group was split into two departing flights from Louisville, and even with the the long lines in the airport, our second group made the connecting flight in Atlanta. I was in the second group and we arrived at the gate just in time, as they had just started boarding our zone. I even had my roommate, who was on the first flight to Atlanta, go get me food before I arrived in the second group, so I could eat a good dinner and skip the delicious plane food. Despite all of the stresses of travel and its tiresome nature, we arrived in London with an eagerness to begin our quest.

I have been anticipating this trip for quite some time now and am sure the other students have similar excitements. We are all ready to begin our three-week journey with almost all of our rising seniors. Over these next few weeks we will be studying English Literature. We will reinforce what we learn in the classroom with Professor Rutledge with field trips all over England that relate to the author’s works we are studying. I’m sure this will prove to be a very informative, exhilarating, and at times exhausting trip; however, we are all ready to take it on in order to make the most of our time here!

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Senior Spotlight: Rohan Deshpande

July 13, 2016 | 2015-2016, Avatars, Rohan Deshpande, Senior Reflection | No Comments

“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” ~Winnie the Pooh

This quote is a yearbook staple—it showed up no less than six times in my freshman yearbook, and is so popular that my home school puts a limit on the number of people who can use it. However, before coming to Gatton, I loathed this quote. It always felt so flaky, so vague. It felt like trying to compliment someone, but only being able to throw out generic adjectives that could apply to anyone, like “cool” or “nice”. Maybe I was just an angsty teenager trying to go against the grain of society, but I sincerely thought my alumni who quoted that pudgy, anthropomorphic bear were looking back on their high school experience with rose-colored glasses. Now, with the glow of my own graduation fading away, I can recognize how true my homeboy Pooh’s words are.

If you had to condense this long-winded, sappy story of mine into one sentence, it would be this: my Gatton experience was incredible. The places I went, the people I met and the memories we shared are priceless. On Move-In Day, almost two years ago, I came in afraid. I was scared the college workload would be too much, that “real” college kids would make fun of me, that my peers would have the social skills of an unsalted peanut. Now, these fears seem innocuous. If I could go back in time to give advice to my 16-year-old self that first night, I wouldn’t say a thing. I would just laugh at past-me and leave to have fun with my friends. The joy of Gatton truly was in the journey.

The classes would be tough, but they would be far more interesting than anything I had taken before—they would be on subjects I was actually interested in, and not just something dull to round out the 7^th slot in my schedule and look good on my transcript. I learned that in college, nobody has the time to care about what other people think about themselves. You could walk to Subway wearing pajama pants and Crocs and nobody would bat an eye. If it was finals week, you probably wouldn’t even be the first to do so that day. As for my class, they’re as cool as cucumbers. At the very least, they’re definitely cooler than someone who still uses “cool as cucumbers.”

It’s hard to describe Gatton—it is so much more than a group of smart kids from Kentucky. The stories I have from the past two years would make Beth’s head spin. I could talk about how I almost dropped half of a human brain while handing it off to Jeremiah in our neurobiology class, or how we found an injured, highly venomous yellow-bellied sea snake on the beaches of Costa Rica and our professor picked it up with his bare hands to store it in a water cooler overnight before releasing it. I could spend days reminiscing on my time at Gatton, but my time with those Kentucky goons has come to an end.

It’s hard to think I won’t return to Gatton in the fall, that two years could feel so long yet fly past in the blink of an eye. If someone asked me my future plans, I would tell them I plan on being that annoying guy at work who still brags about his time in high school to anyone who will lend an ear. I didn’t just make friends at Gatton, I made family. I am so happy I had an experience that made saying goodbye so hard.

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Senior Reflection: Jenna Ellis

July 6, 2016 | 2015-2016, Avatars, Jenna Ellis, Senior Reflection | No Comments

Even though I graduated nearly 2 months ago, it still doesn’t feel real. I’m still trying to convince myself that this isn’t just another closed weekend, and on Sunday afternoon, I’m not going to drive back to Bowling Green and eat at Panda Express with the family I found at my home away from home.

I have spent the last two years at a home where I learned about everything you could possibly think of; I have expanded my knowledge beyond the bounds I thought impossible to reach by learning not only of calculus, computer science, physics, and biology, but of the ethics of dank memes, the importance of Ultimate Frisbee in a daily schedule, the woes of 8 am CPS, and of turning 120 strangers into my family.

It is incredibly difficult to summarize my entire Gatton experience into a single blog post – to be quite honest, I could probably write a book on it at this point – but I will say that it was the single best experience I have had in my entire life. Through every high and low, I was as happy as I had ever been. During the tough weeks where I had three tests on the same day, and the weekends where I had not a worry in the world and I was simply bowling and eating with friends, I knew that I was in the perfect place; I knew that I was at home, and I had the support of a great community and family behind me, and I was going to be happy regardless. That feeling is one that comes with the uniqueness of a place like Gatton. It is one in a million.

Although I had my fears coming into the Academy (am I really smart enough for this, am I going to make good friends, is the food actually decent, etc.), I have now realized that none of them were necessary. I learned, accomplished, researched, laughed, cried, matured, and became passionate for the world I lived in. I figured out that becoming a doctor was not the path for me, but computer science (something I had never heard of before walking into my CS180 class the first day of junior year) and mathematics were actually my thing. I learned that eating Chik-Fil-A everyday was actually disgusting, but drinking three cups of coffee everyday was totally okay. I figured out who I was as a person, and found friends that would support me in any way possible.

With all of my tears shed in the night before, the day of, and the week after (I know, I cry a lot apparently) graduation, I can now confidently (read: without sobbing-ly) say that I miss my gat fam more than anything in the world, but I am so excited to see where the world takes each and every one of us. We are all prepared with the knowledge we gained in the classrooms over the past two years, as well as the lessons we learned and the memories we made in Schneider, Bates, our homes around Kentucky, and on our trips across the world.

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Senior Reflection: Michael Belcher

June 29, 2016 | 2015-2016, Avatars, Michael Belcher, Senior Reflection | No Comments

Two years ago, I was in the middle of my last summer before moving into The Gatton Academy. My mother was busy buying me supplies for school that appeared to cover every scenario from a study session to surviving the apocalypse and I was busy working on my procrastination skills by not packing. I remember being incredibly excited for the change that the Academy would bring, but also nervous about it not living up to my expectations. I struggled with the same fears of social awkwardness and difficult classes that hundreds of Gatton students must have had before me. After two years spent playing video games, pulling all-nighters, playing Frisbee, and hanging out with some of the greatest people I have ever met I look back at myself that summer before junior year and laugh. The Academy exceeded my expectations in almost every conceivable way. I was able to take some of the most challenging and intriguing classes that I have ever taken with professors I admire greatly, had the privilege to do research and get to know the Ferhan and Mustafa Atici duo that made my smile every time we had a meeting, and get to travel to some of the coolest places on the planet. Looking back after the two best years of my life up until this point I can’t help but smile at how much I have change from these last two years of Calculus, eating Chick-fil-A, and incredible memories.

While the memories and experiences that I have taken away from my two years at the Academy are amazing, the people I met and spent my time with along the way are invaluable. Over the last couple years, I have struggled through classes, eaten way too much pizza, and played hours of Frisbee with some of the most incredible people I have ever met. Whether it was being loud and crazy together on second floor or having fun pranking each other on wing, I would not trade a single day at Gatton for anything. Gatton students were not the antisocial nerds that I had feared, they were some the most driven, caring, and supportive people I have ever met. The members of my graduating class are and always will be my Gatton family and I can’t wait to see what we all do with the next years in our lives.

Since graduating and coming home just a couple months ago it seems like everyone wants to know if I regret coming to Gatton and moving away two years early. I could never fully explain all that Gatton has done for me and how much I cherish the two years that I had there, but I will say that the last two years of my life have been by far the best to date. My decision to come to Gatton introduced me to some of the best people I have ever known, allowed me to grow both academically and socially, and gave me memories that I will value for the rest of my life.

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Senior Reflection: Annie B. Wetzel

June 14, 2016 | 2015-2016, Annie B. Wetzel, Avatars, Senior Reflection | No Comments

I sat in the McDonald’s parking lot on Move-In Day with my parents shedding tears for the two years we were about to spend apart. In that moment, I couldn’t help but think of all the things I would be missing out on while I was away. The family dinners, nights with friends, football games, playing tennis. I wasn’t thinking of the new and exciting opportunities that The Gatton Academy would offer. I would now be challenged in the classroom. I could participate in undergraduate level research. I could travel to places I had read about and once dreamed of seeing. I would be forging friendships that would last a lifetime.

It isn’t easy to pack your bags and leave home two years early. There is a lot of maturing that must occur in the short span of a summer before arriving at the Academy. I tried to envision myself climbing the hill of Western, taking classes in a huge room filled with unfamiliar faces, working countless hours at my desk studying, but it wasn’t enough to prepare me to say my final goodbyes on that rainy Move-In Day. I still mourned the loss of the two years at home I would never get back.

Looking back on that tear-soaked day, my parents and I laugh at the time we spent in the McDonald’s parking lot. The Gatton Academy was a life changing and wonderful experience. I can honestly say I would not be in the same position I am today if I had not attended The Gatton Academy.

Days at the Academy pass so quickly. It seemed like as soon as my 7:15 AM alarm rang I would be climbing back into bed to set it again at nightfall. In the last few months of school, I wished the days would go by faster. I was ready for the next step in my life. I wasn’t thinking about the few precious moments the Academy still had to offer. It wasn’t until graduation that it all hit me. I stood beside my classmates and tried to take a mental picture of their faces. I knew in that moment that we were never going to be Gatton students again. We were going to be alums—the frequently mentioned “grandseniors.” Our time at the Academy was soon to be over.

I had the strangest feeling walking out of the auditorium after my tassel had been repositioned to the left side of my cap. I was perfectly content. My entire life was in order and Gatton was largely to thank. Everything I had hoped for as a young girl had come true. The moments I wept for lost time and urged for time to go by faster seemed senseless. It had all worked out as it was meant to be.

I am often asked if I would attend Gatton again if I had the choice. I always say yes. There is nothing I would change about my experience. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Academy and couldn’t imagine spending those two short years any other way. It has ultimately brought me to where I am today. I thank the Gatton Academy for more than a great education. They gave me true happiness and hope for the future I have always dreamed of.

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Senior Reflection: Niven Achenjang

June 6, 2016 | 2015-2016, Avatars, Niven Achenjang, Senior Reflection | No Comments

It feels weird to sit here and begin to type out my senior reflection. Not just because I only graduated a few weeks ago; not just because it has not hit me that Gatton has ended; not just because the Gatton Facebook page is still active; not just because I have seen some of my fellow graduates recently, but because I am typing this a few days after it was due. If there is something people do not realize about Gatton students, it is that many of us (or at the very least me) have a habit of procrastinating assignments.

These past two years at Gatton were the strangest of my life, and I would not have them any other way (Well, no curfew would have been nice). I entered Gatton with few expectations and an unlimited supply of worries, all of which were quickly dealt with. Will everyone be anti-social, only focusing on academics? Not even close. Gatton is so much more than coursework (although that is important), and the community is far from anti-social. Will I be able to take the classes I want, or will these be two years of just general education classes? In the past two years, I have taken 2 philosophy classes, 4 computer science classes, and 8 math classes, so I am going to call this a yes. Will I stop running regularly and become slow and out of shape? Unfortunately, that did happen.

Despite what I gave up (running ability, time with friends/family, frequently eating at 2 Amigos, etc.), Gatton was worth it. It gave me interesting classes, study abroad opportunities, research experience, and all that other jazz you would expect on a Gatton pamphlet, but more so than those, Gatton was full of a lot of memorable little things. It had ultimate frisbee games (almost) daily, late night discussions lasting until 3 in the morning, multiple-hour long walks to GADS, etc. At Gatton, we reduced entire sentences to single words (Ex. “Do you want to go get food?” → “food?”), had real life poke wars, took Derick’s advice that “if a door is unlocked, that means you are allowed to go through it” a little more seriously than he intended, and both started and finished projects and 10-page papers in a single night.

Looking back on my two years at Gatton, they were not spent at a typical school, doing typical school things, They were spent forming inside jokes, becoming a part of and evolving a culture, partially losing my ability to speak English goodly, and creating stories I will remember for a long time. My takeaway from Gatton is not college credit and academic preparedness, but it is what I learned from my time outside of class. It’s the friendships I forged, the lessons I learned, and the fact that I really do not like to do my work until its due the next day.

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