15 Minutes with Levi Klingler, 2013 AHS Graduate- Part Two
By Bailey Bowers
Note: This is the second part of our conversation with Levi Klingler. To read the first part, click here.
What is your fondest college memory so far?
When you were little, do you ever remember setting up a tent or a fort in your living room made of blankets and chairs and duct tape? Well, we did that in my dorm. I lived in a suite with seven other guys. The suite had a common room with a couch and a table and an armchair.
We traded our table for our neighbors' couch, made a “V” with the couches to seal off the corner of the room with the entertainment system and the TV, and then hung up a bunch of blankets and tapestries over the couches with staples and lamps and pushpins, effectively creating a fort (four of us living in the suite were engineering majors -- we found a way). It was the ultimate man cave. That thing held together for weeks!
I loved that tent. So did the rest of our floor. Several times we crammed close to ten people in there. It might sound pretty childish . . . okay, it was pretty childish. That's why it was so awesome.
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
One great thing that has opened up for me now that I'm in college is my ability to travel. My schedule is a lot more flexible now. I had the opportunity to visit Montreal, Canada, over spring break and I got to see how different it is there. I loved it. I want to experience how other people live and do things. There's a whole spectrum out there. But I'm very spontaneous and I don’t like planning things.
For me, the best days ever are the days where you wake up and tell yourself “I don’t know what I’m doing today, but I’m going to start with this” and you just go from there. I think it’s important to stop and think every once in a while, but sometimes when you overthink things you stop doing things. We need to do more.
Anyway, if I could travel anywhere . . . I guess I would start by going to the airport. I'd look for upcoming international flights and just take the soonest one. Well, if I had the money. Same day flights can be pretty expensive, especially international. Maybe I could throw a dart on a map and just go wherever it lands.
It could be backcountry Alabama, the Tibetan mountains, some country in Africa, a quaint little European village, whatever. I truly believe that it doesn't matter where you go, what you do, who you’re with -- you’re going to find something.
Looking back at high school, what class best enabled to you for college?
In the most practical sense, Mr. Lusk’s physics class best prepared me for the classes I’d be taking as an engineering major.
The class that taught me how to think about life was Mrs. Veltri’s AP English class. There were lots of bright kids in that class, and we had some really deep discussions. That collection of students produced an atmosphere that I can only describe as electric.
Everyone was comfortable with each other and not afraid to speak up. I feel like we discussed a lot of pertinent issues in that class, and everybody's opinion mattered and was considered. It honestly changed the way I see a lot of things and opened my eyes to some things I'd never seen.
If I'm being perfectly honest though, I miss Mrs. Davis’ French class the most. I held that class closest to my heart. Throughout my four years at Ada High School, French class and Mrs. Davis were my constants. I really miss her and the people in the class. Some of my closest friends from high school sat in the same row with me in that class every year. Out of everybody in high school, I've kept up with them the most after graduation. That class was my family.
What is it about Ada that makes it so special?
While we may not have been afforded some of the same academic opportunities as kids from larger schools, there were many unique opportunities available to students at Ada that I think many of us took for granted. I know I did.
For example, anyone at Ada could walk onto a sports team without the fear of being cut, and any given student could play sports year-round if they so desired. That simply isn’t an option in college; it's an entirely different set of rules and politics when it comes to athletics, and frankly, I'll never meet the standard that athletes are held to at Ohio State.
The countless years of playing whatever sport I felt like while growing up in Ada were very special to me and will be missed. The most special thing in my opinion about Ada is how tightly knit the community felt growing up, and that's something about the town that hasn't seemed to change much now that I'm home for the summer.
I'm reuniting with old friends and it’s like a day hasn’t passed. The bonds you make with people here are strong. I could point at every single person in my class and tell you two or three stories about them. That isn’t true of a lot of places.
Thanks for talking with us, Levi.
