Helloooo team, alumni, parents! We are starting our first ever blog post series, to continue sharing a more personal side of the team and leadership through a snippet of our regular/every day lives! Our first blog post is from Max Orman-Kollmar, who is off this term but is rearing to come back for Winter Carnival (?) and spring term!!


On a winter day long since passed, I heard many of my friends parrot the same complaint: “7 am drill is soooo baaaad!” Well, guess what, boys and girls: I can do you one better!

Being off both winterim and winter term has left me with plenty of time to fill. I have since done so by laying pipe- no, you degenerates, thats not an innuendo. I am currently working for a plumbing company and am on various sites installing water lines, learning how to use various power tools and just overall working on becoming the world’s premiere Mario cosplayer. Since I’ve gotta be on the site in downtown Manhattan (or Queens for my first site), I have to be up around 4:30 in the morning. The cold air, compounded with wind chill, made the Queens site unbearable as it had NO WINDOWS. Imagine handling cold metal rods and trying to tighten tiny screws, all while hoping that you’re fingers are just stiff and not legit frozen solid.This delightful atmosphere earned that place the moniker “The Icebox”, which the five of us were more than happy to leave behind. Now, we are working on the 29th floor of a building downtown for a soon-to-be office space. It’s indoors, it’s heated, but most of all, the sunrise view does not get old.

The hour-long train ride back home I spend reading a book if I can find a seat, or else I’m  listening to podcasts and music. While I find myself missing school and the campus atmosphere, the thing I miss the most by far are my friends and Club Swim. I do try to get into the pool once in a while, but I don’t have too much free time right now. So, I can’t wait to be back in the spring and splash around with everyone else!