College Essay III: Gage

GAGE HACKFORD '08

I am a day dreamer who sits and stares and thinks thoughts that no one else knows; I discover the cure for AIDS, question Khomeini, and write a Pulitzer-winning novel all in my old comfy chair.

I am a musician who feels melodies conduct themselves inside my mind, who tries to find the perfect tone on my silver flute, named Angel, and whose headphones switch between the heart-wrenching notes of Mozart’s Requiem, power chords of Disturbed, and Celtic splendor of Loreena McKennitt.



I am a wanderer whose feet have taken me all the way to Africa, into the slums of Kibera and back, even though I never believed I would make it home, yet didn’t want to leave at the same time.

I am a laugher who chuckles at absurd antics and entertaining movie lines, who appreciates the irony of a situation, and who laughs simply because it feels so good to laugh.

I am a writer who plays with words, always searches for synonyms, and sees the world in metaphor and simile.

I am a historian who delves into facts and dates with relish, survives battles and revolutions, and watches the world’s heroes as they do the impossible.

I am a daughter and a sister who loves my family and shows it by enthusiastically bickering with them as we all cheerfully debate with one another in a conversation that many families would never allow.

I am a spiritual seeker who finds peace in the 108 movements of my Tai Chi form, or in the principles of Yin and Yang, movement and non-movement, soft and hard.

I am a Celt who has stood with thousands of other Celts, clutching my shield, and feeling the wind whip back my hair, bleached blonde with lime, watching as Caesar’s massive fleet of Roman ships arrives on the shores of Foreland to give me trouble.

I am a technology enthusiast who pushes buttons on gadgets and computers, never reading the manual, preferring to discover how everything works myself.

I am a scientist with shaky hands and a morbid fascination, who loves minute details and longs for satisfying results.

I am a contemplator who sits for hours in the tranquil forests of Maine, listening to the icy stream and watching the wind brush consolingly through rugged trees.

I am a reader who loves to curl up on the couch to try and cheat death with Captain Yossarian, or drive through the fields of America with Dean and Sal, or charge into an army of thousands with the Rohirrim as the sun crests over Pelennor fields.
I am a wonderer who usually doesn’t have all the answers to the thousands of questions spinning in my mind, but who is constantly in awe at the ordinary happenings of the world around me.

I am a vivid night dreamer who runs through forests of trees made of eyes, soars through star-strewn black skies, then wakes up and tries to remember what it felt like to fly.