Transcript

Haven Jones:

Over the summer I was sitting in Chipotle with my family and the first wave of college kids came in.

And I’m like, “Oh my gosh, it’s happening! This is my time!”

And I knew that school was right around the corner and it’s like being able to come back to this place, it’s just, it’s stunning. It’s really nothing better.

I mean it really feels like I’m on a little island here.

I look forward to it every summer.

Being so engrossed and so enthralled with the people and the experiences here, while still being able to drive 20 minutes and be in the middle of nowhere.

Like that experience is just, is so amazing to me.

Hi, my name is Haven. I am a senior here at the University of Maine.

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been four years.

This campus still makes me feel like I’m a freshman.

I’m from Orrington, which is about 30 minutes from here.

I decided to kind of come to UMaine because I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do.

I initially started out as a computer engineer and I’m currently a business major here at the UMaine Business School.

You know, switching to business I thought was just going to be a gateway to getting a job later on.

I had no idea the sense of community that I was able to develop there.

One of my professors I talked to and I ended up connecting with her name is Buffy Quinn.

And she inspired me to reach out.

To work harder, to get a sense of what I could be doing, what I could do more.

And I ended up getting really involved in the business school as a Bridge Week representative, an orientation leader, and currently a peer leader.

It’s such a safe place to truly explore.

I feel more confident than ever that I could go on and take on the world.

As a kid I never really went away.

I wasn’t a summer camp kid. I didn’t really go and stay at friends’ houses very often.

But came along freshman year and moved into the dorm. I lived in Somerset 420 all the way up on the fourth floor.

My mother swore up and down that I would absolutely hate the experience.

But it was definitely one of the best things I think I’ve ever done.

It was such a unique thing to just have a friend across the hall, walking over there, knocking on the door, and say, “Hey, you want to go to Pats?”

It’s such an amazing experience.

And I think if I could go back to one time in my life, it would be my freshman year.

I went on to live two more years here as an RA.

I tell all of the incoming students, “Please be open and get involved, because you really don’t know what is going to happen. You really don’t.”

Probably my sophomore summer I went and started doing things with my friends, just hitting the ball back and forth.

I bought myself an $11 Marden’s racket, but then I started getting a little bit more into it.

And it ended up being such an amazing, positive experience.

Community, the people, it’s definitely one of my favorite things I do during the week.

Days like this, where it’s sunny and the leaves are falling, they just allow you to reminisce at a certain level in which I haven’t really experienced otherwise.

It’s crazy to me that it’s over. I think I’m feeling a level of shock and awe that I’ve completed for years, and that’s it. I’m done.

It makes me appreciate the times I’ve had here, and I think I will in the future not so easily forget all the little moments, because it goes by so fast.

Yoooooooo

You’re not even catching Haven in his element when he wears only flip flops and sweatpants.

And sweaters.

What about the sweater with the sweatpants?

That was a good — Did anyone else watch that last week?

It was a terrible combo.

Anyone catch that last week?

It was a terrible combo.

It was elite!

Wait!

Let me look at my notes on what outfits he bit more last week.