Holly Harris ('18)

Christian Fulghum ‘77: It was great to see you briefly at Grads Return last month. It was nice that you were able to jump on that kind of at the last minute, right? You just happened to be in town?

Holly Harris ‘18: Yeah, exactly.

Christian: Did you enjoy being back on campus?

Holly: Oh, definitely nice to come back. I mean, every time I come back I think I look forward to seeing some teachers and being on campus. Especially with my friend Griffin (Rettig ’18), it's always so fun. So yeah, but mostly to see the teachers, I think it's the best part about being back.

Christian: Yeah. Did you get asked any particularly interesting or pithy questions by the high school students?

Holly: By the 9th and 10th graders?

Christian: Yes.

Holly: I think I was struck, definitely, by the amount of questions that had to do with college. Which I find funny, because obviously Grads Return is so that high schoolers can get more of a college perspective. But coming from the 9th and 10th graders, I think I so wanted to just tell all of them you don't have to think about this at all right now. You shouldn't be thinking about anything you're doing now for how it sets you up for college because that's for the next two years of high school, not for the first two years. 

I think some of the questions were pretty funny. Like, "What kind of activities did you do over the summer," was one of the questions that I was asked. And I was like, "Well I went outside over the summers. I didn't have internships.”

And I think the other people on the stage definitely had, probably, more things to say about summer internships and classes at Brown and Dartmouth and these programs that they had done. But I was like, I didn't want people on stage to say that kind of stuff because I know, I remember being a ninth and a tenth grader, and that was the last thing I needed to hear. I just wanted someone to tell me to have fun in high school. 

Christian: Students certainly put more pressure on themselves, and experience more external sources of pressure now than in the seventies, though in a relative way it might not be that much different. But, kids were doing high school and enjoying being that age growing up and learning new things and having great teachers and bombing a test now and then. You know? It was more…

Holly: Normal.

Christian: Normal stuff, yeah. I do wish the younger high school students at Overlake could lighten up a bit, and make more time for things they truly enjoy. It’s a privilege to be at Overlake, and it’s important to enjoy all this wonderful opportunity along the way.

Holly: I think it's definitely changed, especially, I think my generation is kind of the first of the obsession almost. I think even my older brothers weren't really... it wasn't as intense for them, for sure. I remember. So yeah, it's definitely changing.

Christian: I think some of that is just global demographics. US Colleges are in demand, and more students from abroad are both qualified to attend and able to attend economically.

Holly: Totally.

Christian: What I mean is that there are far more students from abroad now coming to American colleges and it's not as if there's a lot more seats at the elite colleges. There aren't. I think this notion of what constitutes a great education and what you need to be a whatever you define success as an adult is, is really... I think we need to wind it down a bit. I have a lot of those conversations with faculty and with alums, like you, kind of saying, "Wow, if I'd known, I would have done it differently." it sounds like you kind of lived your best life in high school and more people should follow The Harris Method. 

Holly: I think that even I could have followed my own method a little better. I think that by the end of high school, I definitely got sucked up a little bit into the intensity of it. But my problem was more of, probably, holding myself to a higher standard than I needed to in terms of academics.

Christian: Yeah, it's interesting. I did a presentation for Making a Life Day a couple of weeks ago, where I tried out some ideas for what I hope will eventually be a Project Week called “AP Failure.” Sort of goofing on the AP part, but you know, really saying it's important to understand and embrace and use failure to your advantage in life. That this fear of failure is really not a good thing. And I mean, no one wants to fail at anything. But using failure as a learning tool and learning from what it can teach you, instead of turning away from it, what did you get out of it and what can you do better? I was asking this group of kids, you know, what is, what constitutes failure at Overlake? And the immediate answer in both sessions I taught, from two very different groups of kids, was, "Oh, getting a B. That's a failure." You know, like wow! You know, that's hard to hear.

Holly: And I would say even more than that, failure at Overlake is stretched to not playing a sport. I think that that that's seen as kind of a failure. Which is interesting, I find, because I think when you put that much pressure on playing a sport it takes away some of the fun of it too.

Christian: Well in any case, so you are a well-seasoned student at Bowdoin. What's going on there? How was the transition to school for you, and what are you doing? Are you loving Bowdoin? Talk to me about that.

Holly: Yeah, I'm definitely loving it here. I'm still, even though I'm halfway through sophomore year, definitely still figuring things out. And I think it's something I've learned that now, more so this year than even last year, is that it's always going to be changing and I'm always going to be adjusting. And so I think every year is different. Every semester is different. And that's one of the coolest things about college, is that it feels like I'm constantly going through transitions even though I'm at this one place, with this fairly small student body. So it's not like there are new people all the time, but there's still so many changes always happening as I'm reevaluating how I'm spending my time, and changing my priorities, and figuring out what's best for me based off of the classes I'm taking, and balancing having fun and going outside, and doing the things I love here, with also making sure that I'm spending the right amount of time doing my work, and getting the most out of that. So I'd say, yeah, that's definitely been the biggest learning experience is that there's no right way to do things at any time. It can always change is definitely a good lesson.

But yeah, in terms of what I'm doing here, one of the best things has been getting involved with the outdoors club here, called the Bowdoin Outdoors Club (BOC), and then working as coordinator for the outing club trips. As first year students come into Bowdoin, everyone's required to go on a week-long pre-orientation trip. I've started kind of organizing all the campsites and hiring all the trip leaders to do that next fall. So even though it's so long ways out I’m starting to work on that right now, and I'll be here all summer preparing for the incoming class of students and to go out on all those trips, which is a really exciting thing. One of my favorite parts about Bowdoin was going on the trip myself and then leading the trip with all my friends last year, and now I get to be in charge of all the leaders, which is cool.

So that's something I'm working on. And then I write for the paper. I illustrate for the student paper, it's called the Bowdoin Orient. It's pretty fun time. And then I'm also living in a college house on campus. So we have these, all the old frat houses that vote in were flipped into social houses as far as in the 90s when then decided that frats we're no more and so the sophomores can apply to live in these houses. And my house has about 28 people. We had a big kitchen in a basement and we throw parties and guest speakers come and their performances and it's just a really fun space because everyone's welcome from all parts of campus. But the 28 of us that live here get to be in charge of kind of what we want our image to be and who we want to bring in and how we want to operate as a unit, which is really fun and definitely a unique living experience. So that's been really, really awesome this year.

And then I'm studying geology and visual arts right now, but things are always changing and I'm always taking new classes and switching, switching up my decisions. But yeah, sorry that was very long winded.

Christian: Okay. I have two questions in there and I'll ask them backwards. When you bring speakers into your house, what's an example of a speaker you might bring in?

Holly: Hmm. Early in this whole we brought a group of mimes from New York City and they did a mime training and performance.

Christian: I'm sorry, mime speakers?

Holly: I guess they weren't speakers. There wasn't much talking involved. But yeah, they taught people how to mime and did a little performance. Last week one of the college houses brought in, for the season premiere of Survivor, I read an article about it too in the paper, so I can send that to you. But one of the past winners of Survivor lives in nearby Portland, Maine. My friends got him to come give a talk at the house and then we all watched the season premiere of Survivor and he stayed and gave commentary on everything. It was so great cause he's this famous guy just lives in Maine. And I think that's the coolest thing. People from Maine are so excited about being from Maine that they'll be willing to do anything as long as it involves him talking about Maine in any capacity. I feel like I've entered this new community of just pride and I didn't even know. It's so wacky here, but I love it.

Christian: Walking back a little further into what you were saying earlier, do you find that when you're doing the outdoor trips that you have, I'm sure you have some kids who are from a school like Overlake where outdoor education is, you know, part of the culture and, and a lot of people do it recreationally in addition to that, but do you finally have some incoming first year students who have never really gone even camping and you know, are kind of terrified by the whole thing?

Holly: Yeah.

Christian: That must be an interesting challenge. I mean, do you pair people up? Do they fill out a questionnaire, you know, about their experience at all?

Holly: Yes, they definitely fill out a questionnaire about their experience. And trips are assigned based on that, but at the same time we want people who've never had these experiences to be also thrown into a little bit of discomfort to get to know the people around them. I think those values were definitely instilled in me at Overlake: the importance of just going for things, even though they might feel slightly uncomfortable and taking chances and trying new things. Because without doing that, you're never going to figure out if there's something you really love. For example, on my orientation trip that I led this fall, almost none of the kids had outdoor experience and I expected at least a few of them would help me cook and stuff like that. But in reality it was very new for all of them. So the first night we were at camp, it was just like extreme, extreme downpour. And my co-leader and I were like, "Oh no, this is not going to end well." 

Anyways, my co-leader and I woke up in the morning and we went into camp to kind of wake them up cause we had set our tent up a little bit away from them just so they had, they would have time to bond and wouldn't feel like we were listening or anything.

And in reality, of course, we were listening to their conversations. But so we got into camp and no one was in their tents. And my colleague and I were like, "Oh my gosh, what did we do? What has happened?" And so we're kind of frantically running around camp trying to figure out where these kids had gone. And we eventually open up the van thinking maybe some of them are in the van because it was raining. And we opened the van and all of them - this is like a small van - all 11 of them, or 10 of them, are lying in every possible nook and cranny of the van with their stuff piled on top of them fast asleep. So they had all climbed in the van in the night to avoid the rain. And so they all were under the seats and in the trunk. It was so bad. [Laughing]

Christian: Oh, my gosh. Wow. [Laughing]

Holly: So that was one example. And then that bonded them, and they thought it was hilarious after that, that they had literally slept in the van, and the next two nights were awesome. They totally we, we figured out how to hang some tarps up to, to add some protection because these kids did not want to get wet whatsoever, which was hilarious cause of course it's going to rain and everyone was going to get wet. But by the end of the trip people were so bummed to go and wanted to stay out longer and they were so fine with getting dirty for the first time. And now a couple of them are actually applying to be trip leaders for next fall. And I'm in the leadership training program right now for the BOC, which means that they’ll be leading trips throughout the year, every year, and our total outdoor friends. 

I think that just goes to show how a little discomfort can be good sometimes. And I really, it's fun to be a part of making that happen for other people for the first time in my life because I've always kind of been on the other side of it. Whether it was being in a wet tent on Project Week with Kent in ninth grade in the Hoh Rainforest. I would just distinctly remember that memory. And that's one of my first times being very uncomfortable outside and having such a good time. So yeah, definitely cool to give that experience to other people.

Christian: Yeah. I mean, because there's so much in that. Not only they're getting dirty and being uncomfortable and, you know, how do you deal with a night that's so wet that even if your tent is pitched perfectly, you're going to get soaking wet? You know? How do you deal with that? How do you keep your morale up? How do you keep the leap? And you realize if you're in a group, you're trying to keep the least happy person together because that's the weak link. Right? And try to keep the team spirit up and we can do this and you know, "Yeah, we're a little cold and wet, but we're fine." And we're going to figure, you know, there's that the same kind of team building stuff that happens on a good athletic team. You know that's I think the main purpose of teams anyways, to sort of teach collaboration. But to your other point, I think learning to fit, to learn anything new and to build confidence in yourself, you've got to get uncomfortable. There's just no way around it, you know?

Holly: Exactly!

Christian: We’re programmed not to make ourselves uncomfortable in a way, but there is such value in knowing that you can get through challenges. Having that confidence is empowering. “It's just rainstorm, man. It's not a blizzard. We're not being eaten by wolves. Come on!” You know? There's level of reality check there. I love that. 

Holly: The confidence and bonding that comes with that experience is so awesome.

Christian: I learned that stuff early. My family lived in the wilderness for five straight summers, for two months at a time in Eastern British Columbia. I realize now that I was so lucky that I did it from age five to 10 because it just became programmed into me. It made me love the outdoors and love and respect the environment so much more than I would have any other way. 

What are you thinking about in terms of your academic/life trajectory? Is it defined for you at this point or are you still finding your way in terms of what the rest of college is for you?

Holly: As far as undergrad goes, I think my trajectory is somewhat defined in that I know I'm, I'm declared for earth and oceanographic science. That's my major. So I'll definitely continue with that. And then I'm also thinking about doing a visual arts, either double major or minor just cause the department here is awesome and I love like having that creative aspect of my schedule to do.

But in terms of future trajectory, I have no clue. And I definitely want to go to grad school for something. I think I probably want some kind of career related to either outdoor education or sustainability, environmental sustainability work in some capacity, maybe design oriented sustainability. I'm not really sure. But yeah, something to do with improving environment or helping people to interact with the environment. So, that's where I'm at. 

Christian: It's a dynamic situation. Do you think you'll go straight into grad school or you think you might do something in between, building on what you've learned so far and take a little break before grad school? I'm just curious about your thinking on that.

Holly: I think that I'll definitely do something in between undergrad and grad schools. I'm not not clear what that might be. Anything from being a “Lifty” in Telluride, I think, to working at a ski resort in Telluride for a year or doing some kind of teaching program or traveling. I have no clue. But I definitely, I think I'm going to feel the need to take some time off after Bowdoin and have a few more real-life experiences before heading back to school. And I think that I'll probably pick whatever I ended up doing based off of what I want to experience. If I want to like try some research for a little bit and see what that's like, but something, something outside, something fun.

A lot of people from Bowdoin apply for Fulbright and Watson Fellowships ended up either traveling and teaching, or just pursuing some kind of personal project through the Watson fellowship. I can see myself really wanting to try to get one of those and get some funding for an adventure that leads me in some direction and maybe will bring more insight into what I want to do with my future. 

Christian: Any advice you would give to your younger self about your time at Overlake?

Holly: Man. It's funny because my time at Overlake, it's so segmented between me when I was really, really little and my brothers were there and I was going to art performances and choir performances. And then middle school just seems so far off. I think I would definitely tell my middle school self to be less of a perfectionist and to relax a little bit and maybe not care so much about what other people think because in reality no one really cares that much besides me.

I think I was definitely caught up in that world in middle school and then in high school I would have told myself to prioritize things that I genuinely love and not waste time on anything that I felt like I should be doing just because I felt like I should be doing it.

So yeah, I think it took me till getting to college and having come to those experiences all at once where I was really forced to choose things to figure out, wow, I could've done that all in high school and maybe I would have been a lot happier or maybe I just would've spent more time doing what I love to do.

And I'm not saying I like didn't do a bunch of things that I loved in high school. I was so privileged to get to play on Overlake basketball and that was such a blast, and played water polo for Bellevue and I loved being on student government, and doing all those things. But I also definitely put time and energy into things that I didn't fully love and that I just felt like I should be doing because I needed to be busy and be furthering my, I don't know, future.

Is not, it's all the time. Even now isn't really the time to further my future. I feel like the best way to further the future is to just be happy in the present and be doing what you love in the present. So, yeah.

Christian: I concur. Everything you're saying rings true for me and, and there's really taking joy in the current moment is really the most important thing. And that's a hard concept I think for those of us who grew up in the western world and are all about plan for your future and you know, do this, but it's like you don't know what the future is going to bring. So if you're not loving today, that's the problem to solve. And I think that is super important. I'd love it if you'd send me a little sample of an article you've written or some of your art. Anything you’ve got going on right now. I'd love to just see it as someone who used to write for the Monte Carlo Bug, which is Overlake's paper in my day. 

Holly: Yeah.

Christian: But thank you so much for giving me some of your time today and I wish you an amazing journey and I hope I hear from you, soon. 

Holly: Yeah, it's so fun to talk. I feel like we have a lot in common too, which is fun.

Christian:  All right. Talk to you soon.