This is Joose, and lemme tell you he is a tall glass of juice, in fact he’s the only character around here that makes me feel short. He is a jumble of arms and legs, crazy angles, massive smiles and good-natured jokes. He’s a teenager, but he presents like an infectiously infatuated and charmingly disheveled professor of medieval history.
And indeed, one day Joose hopes to roam Europe, rubbing dirt from the battlefields of Hastings between his palms while staring dreamily into the middle distance. He says, “I’ve just always loved things 600 years older than me. It’s kind of inexplicable.” Right now he is deep into the Wars of the Roses. He says, “it’s a series of wars over about 100 years between the houses of Lancaster and York. More or less concurrent with the 100 years war between England and France. You know, it’s like Game of Thrones but the blood is real.” I asked him if he ever imagines medieval combat. “Oh yes,” he says, with a slight shudder, “pretty brutal stuff. Imagine being on a line, charged by armored cavalry, with nothing but a padded jacket and a flimsy spear between you and your imminent demise.” That sounds a little like my job, but I didn’t say anything.
Joose is also an actor, and he made our hearts flutter at our most recent production, not merely by Hoffmaning his own role but by heroically undertaking an additional role just two hours before showtime when an actor called in sick. Joose memorized the lines, transmuted the mojo, and became a knight on the field of thespian battle. He says “it was kind of daunting; I was a little nervous. But it paid off…its satisfying.” Sir Joose!
When I asked what he thinks about HVSS, Joose said, “I like how different it is…you can’t manufacture people, but that’s kinda what a conventional school tries to do. Real life doesn’t work like that, and that’s something this school gets really right: it lets people be people, and it lets kids be kids.” Joose, our affection for you grows daily. We want to drive across the Scottish highlands with you exploring ruins. We want to audit your classes when you’re teaching at the University of Cambridge. We want you to keep being you, a hero upon the field.