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Amazing Opportunities

by Sean :: Tuesday February 12, 2008

At Thacher, we don’t receive the national holidays, such as Martin Luther King Jr. Day or Presidents' Day, like public schools. Instead, a tradition was set in place, which allows a holiday to be “called” by the administration giving the school a day off. This is done often times to make up for those days we don’t get off, but most often to give us break from school in an unexpected fashion which everyone enjoys (even the faculty).

This past Tuesday was a holiday, a couple friends and I did something a bit unusual for a holiday. Instead of sleeping in until 9 o’clock, we all got up a 7 o’clock to ride into town for breakfast with the Head of School, Mr. Mulligan.

During Assembly after the holiday was announced and the thundering applause and cheering of the students died down. Mully (as we students affectionately call him) stated that he would like to take a bunch of students into town for breakfast on horseback. But there was a catch; the contest was to see which group could give the best reasons as to why they wanted to go. So after Assembly, my friend Nicky ask be me if I wanted to go with him and some others on Mully’s excursion into town. I obliged and asked him what our reason would be. He smiled broadly and said that since everyone in the group, with the exception of me, had not ridden since freshmen year; our reason would be that we all miss the comraderie we felt being on horseback with our friends and we remembered truthfulness of Sherman Day Thacher’s quotation, that “There’s something on the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a boy”. With these feelings radiating out of me throughout the rest of my classes, I was ecstatic when I learned that were going with Mully, and I couldn’t wait.

Looking back, it is events like these which make Thacher such a unique and wonderful place to spend your time. Truthfully, how many other schools are there, where you can ride on horseback into town for breakfast with your headmaster and friends in tow?

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