Hamilton College is a unique place and an even more unique culture. To a kid from Little Falls, who never ventured very far from home, and whose only passion was to play football, Hamilton is an adventure. A place filled with academicians, history, and people from all over the country and world. Hamilton quickly shattered my paradigms formed from what I came to realize was an isolated existence. Not a bad thing, just a reality. Herein lies a primary value of the Hamilton experience for me. To truly love Little Falls and to appreciate it fully I learned you have to realize there are other places and cultures in the world that are different. That choosing to be here and to commit to contributing to this community means you find something so appealing about it that you forsake all other places you can choose to exist. Sounds obvious, but to a kid from Little Falls, it sometimes isn’t. Growing up, I thought I knew for sure what a “smart kid” looked like, what “an athlete” did to prepare, hell I even thought I knew what “being smart” meant. You wanted to know who the “druggies” were? I could point them out, or so I thought. Rich kids are jerks, or so I thought. Blue collar kids were easy to spot… not so much. My paradigms were all shattered. Quickly. The new reality that began to emerge was that my mind is dangerous. It can convince me of things that are not real, not true. It is so insidious, that if I am not careful, I can unknowingly convince myself of absurd conclusions without any effort whatsoever.
Hamilton taught me that my biases were deep - and wrong. That I should stop my arrogant categorization of people and really seek to understand them, deeply. In seeking to understand the many wonderful people I met at Hamilton, and to get to know the dear friends I met that still impact my life today, has made a huge difference in the “who that I am.”
Over the years this has manifested itself in many ways. Most importantly, I have learned to dream. To take the power of my mind and to use it for good. It doesn’t take much observation to realize that everything has two creations, first a thought, then the action. Who is to say something is not possible? Even more important, who cares what people say? I am certain that Walt Disney had his critics when he began buying swamp land in the middle of Florida because he envisioned a wonderful world of adventure and theme parks that were so compelling and well run that people from all over the world would save their hard earned money to one day venture there. Crazy? To many, yes. Impossible? No.
And so it is with this vision Overlook Ridge. In Little Falls, NY. I learned from my Hamilton experience that there is a vastness of opportunity and cultures in the world and anyone is free to do whatever it is they choose. I also learned that anything is possible. And that if you have a passion, can communicate effectively (something they teach very well at Hamilton), you can realize your dreams and even change the world.
Precious.
[By the way, there is some pretty bright people that go through the place. I also learned that I'm not so smart. Humbling. Another valuable lesson learned.]
And so, after Hamilton, enlightened, youthful, but still ignorant in so many ways, it was off to begin my career life…
