Humanities

Interview Write-up
Jack Tescher

Adolescence is a time of self-discovery. It is a time where you find the things that make
you happy. It is a time of both reflection on the past and preparing for the future but for my dad,
it was a little different. My 15-year-old dad dressed in timberland boots, corduroy pants, and
when it was cold a turtleneck sweater, and a trench coat over it. You would either find him
working as a caddy boy or on the sports field, he was always doing something. He would always
tell me stories when he was a kid about him not having anything to do and having to come up
with ideas to keep himself occupied. When he hit adolescence this didn't stop and still hasn't
stopped. Today, as an adult, my dad is always doing something. This never stopped in college
and grad school, the activities he did were endless.
The feeling of home was sometimes distant for my father. Through my dad's adolescent
years, he moved a lot so the relationships he had were pretty short and not as deep as today's
standards. He had groups of friends that he did certain activities like he had his friends that he
did sport with and friends that he would go skiing with. He said, “I had two groups of friends. I
had my friends that I played sports with and then I had other friends that weren't on my sports
team but that I would going skiing with or water skiing.”(Williamson) His biggest move was
when he was 15 so the start of his adolescent journey. He moved from a small town in the south
to the east coast. Everything was different, from people's vocabulary to what they wear, It was
almost like being in a new country. Big moves like this can be both beneficial and detrimental to
the adolescent journey. On the beneficial side, you are in a new place so you can reinvent
yourself and people do not have a past judgment of you. On the other side, you are in a new
place with new and different ideas, so it is hard to fit in. Both of these things are things to
navigate through adolescence.
Energy levels have never been low for long with my dad. When he was a kid he played
all the sports and when I say all the sports I mean basketball, football, water polo, baseball, etc.
When he wasn't playing sports he was working. Whether it was for his dad or at an actual job he
worked. He was always busy so his adolescent journey was in a bit of a halt until his early
twenties when he moved to Colorado for college. In the classic adolescent journey, you end up
finding yourself in your early and late teens and go to college having at least an idea of what you
want to do with your life. “I went to Colorado College to go to college but mainly to live in the
mountains.”(Williamson) He wanted to escape from where he lived, he needed a big change in
scenery along with a place where he could get his daily 2-hour sufferfest in.
Finding what you want to do in life can be very hard, but it's all about finding what you
do not like because if you know that then you have some guidance through adolescence. My dad
learned he hates living somewhere far from the mountains. Being in nature had a big influence
on his adolescence and shaped the rest of his life. Overall, I think that my dad had his future in
mind most of his adolescence and he wasn’t too concerned about other people. I personally can
connect to this because when I leave Durango I will not be going somewhere far from the
mountains. Interviewing my dad made me realize how different everyone's adolescence can be.