By John Turrentine (’16)

Note: The following essay is adapted from comments made before the Thomas Aquinas College Board of Governors at its November 2015 retreat.

I am the fourth of my family to attend Thomas Aquinas College. My three older brothers are all graduates. The oldest came in 1999, when I was about 5 years old, so I have grown up practically my entire life knowing about the school, and my brothers always brought friends home for vacations, so there were always students from the College around. From a young age I realized there were some things about them that were really different from anything I had seen before — things that stuck with me, that registered, even when I was so young, and that I still remember today.

Two of those things were, first, how devout the students were. My parish was not full of young Catholics; there weren’t very many people either my age or even in the late teens. I didn’t know what a young Catholic faith looked like until I saw it in my brothers and their friends. That really stuck in my mind, just going to Mass with them and seeing how they approached the Eucharist and the other sacraments.

The second thing that registered was how kind they were. Being the youngest child, I was generally used to sitting in the corner, watching my brothers play. Once, though, at Thanksgiving dinner, I was by the fire playing when everyone was still at the table talking. One of my brothers’ friends came over and sat down and started playing with me. I didn’t realize fully then what that meant, but I remember being so in awe that this god among men — this 19-year-old! — was playing with me, and that meant a lot. Another time I somehow convinced a couple of students to let me make a movie with them in it. They spent about three hours being bossed around by a 10-year-old, and took it in great form.

From the age of five or six I realized that I wanted to be like the students at Thomas Aquinas College. So when it came time to apply to schools, there was only one on my list. Luckily I was accepted. But when I came to the College, I was thinking only about the Catholic environment and the friends that I would make. I didn’t really appreciate the academic program itself.

Sophomore Year I was asked to be a prefect, and one of the things they tell prefects is that we are meant to be an example. In considering this responsibility, I realized that I was not as committed to the curriculum as I should be. So I took that to heart, and when I tried to commit myself to the curriculum, I realized that it was easy to commit myself to it — because it was amazing.

From Sophomore Year onward I started paying greater attention to what we are doing here. In Junior Year and now in Senior Year, we have been reading St. Thomas, and we have also been reading the modern philosophers. These two very different schools of thought have greatly influenced me. St. Thomas and Aristotle are sort of the champions of reality, as it is, and common sense. They have allowed me to see what the foundations of a life well-lived should be. Then, reading the beginnings of the moderns — philosophers such as Rousseau, Hobbes, Kant, and Hegel — has really helped me to see what the modern world is based on, and it’s not common sense. It’s not reality.

Being able to see both lines, where we should be and where we are, has been incredibly helpful in considering what I will do next. There is a real danger in the modern world; it’s a battlefield of ideas. Thomas Aquinas College has helped me recognize that danger, and by resolving back to the champions of reality, it has prepared me to respond to it. So I am hoping to go on to graduate school and get a philosophy degree, then teach, to be one little drop in the ocean to restore Catholic education, to restore it toward sanity. That is a big goal, and though I may not be able to do very much, I will do what I can.

I want to thank all of you for the part you have played in establishing and supporting Thomas Aquinas College. The College would not be here without you. I would not be at the College without you. Without you, I really would not have been prepared for the realities of life — both the sad realities and the joyful ones — because I would not understand, or begin to understand, where we are. Know that I am praying for you, and I am very thankful. God bless.

Mr. Turrentine is from Fairfax, California.