Leland lives over the hill from me in East Calais. We’ve been friends since he was in first grade, and every year around this time we get together and he tells me what he’s thinking about, worried about, what his plans are. He got his driver’s permit two weeks ago so he drove me over to Number 10 Pond and we sat and talked about the ups and downs of his first year of high school, about girls, about avocado toast…
Credits
Music for this show is by Vermont musician Brian Clark, who is the lead singer and songwriter for the band Anachronist. Which is awesome.
Rumble Strip is sponsored by the best restaurant in Burlington, Vermont. It’s called Honey Road. Click on the image below to read about their menu of Eastern Mediterranean small plates…
“I’m a fragile human being”. I don’t know many adults who would have the insight and confidence to say this, much less a teenage boy. Leland’s self-awareness and just plain smarts make him Years ahead of his time. A young renaissance man. I look forward to every opportunity to know where Leland is at, and where he may be going. Thanks for another great episode!
Hello Erica and Leland,
Thank you for the recent episode, it reminded me of many things I had forgotten and many things I have found since I was there myself, including how similar we all are in some ways though our differences also draw us in the same directions.
On that note- Leland:
I hope for you that you find a way to forge the depth and sensitivity of mind of yours with the will to create and manage the world hands-on; that you give girls and avocado toast a chance (they are both worth investigating and do not have to cost exorbitantly-) -and most of all! a chance to the west coast (including most parts of California) which are full of rain and spaces wide enough to both feel your sadness as well as find joy.
Good luck in your next year, I look forward to hearing how it goes for you.
P.S. I wonder, should global studies not become more difficult as we grow older and are exposed to more than geography? Perhaps the fact that you struggled with it is good…as long as you do not give up on it?
I’m in love with your show. Don’t stop doing it! Greetings from Cuba.
Tomás! From CUBA! Thank you so much for listening!
I really look forward to these interviews with Leland! They always make me sweet happy cry, because what I appreciate most in people is sincerity. No matter the subject and whether I understand it, agree with it, or not, to me sincerity is the most important gift I receive from other people. I hope you never lose this aspect of your personality Leland. It’s so easy for people to use sarcasm to express things they are uncomfortable with, but you are a brave and honest soul, and that’s why so many people enjoy hearing about what you are thinking about! Also, this conversation about girls was almost word for word the conversation I had with my Mom when I was around 13 about boys. I really understand what ya mean Leland! Take your time! And somehow I’m thinking that I commented on another interview with you when you were younger, where I related deeply to some things that you said, and here’s another… The rain! It IS hard to appreciate those beautiful sunny days without having time in the rain, a metaphor for life in my opinion. Being “happy” all the time is not possible or real. It takes introspection and sometimes loss and sadness to really understand what being happy is. I lived in Florida as a teenager, and I really missed the seasons! Leland, I think you are going to be amazing at what you do! Learning hands on is a time honored way for people to pass down their knowledge to others and whatever you end up doing, I bet you will really enjoy it and be really good at it! Rock on Leland! xoPeg
This was fantastic. Thanks for sharing your life with us, and good luck, Leland!!
Erica and Leland, bravo !
It is so great you have kept in touch…and as a former high school teacher I am thrilled to hear where you are heading for sophomore year. I wish more kids had hands on stuff these days too…in fact I wish most had a break for two years of community service in the middle of high school so they had more time and space and experience to figure out things and enjoy helping others out.
Best of luck and please do another program next summer ….
There may not be a high school out there that can keep up with you, Leland. I’m just saying. I’ve been teaching high schoolers for over 25 years, and I just hope that you haven’t decided that you’re not a geographer because Global Studies didn’t go so well. You ask important questions and offer meaningful insights that go well beyond schooling and Common Core. I appreciate your humility, candor, and pragmatism (especially about girls). Your willingness to do these interviews each year says it all, and I hope that next year is full of new discoveries. Thank you, Erica, for bringing us in to Leland’s thoughts about life. He’s the bomb.
Leland, you are a wonderful piece of work. You know who you are and what works best for you and what’s important to you. But I’d suggest that you think about keeping your eyes open to trying different things when they present themselves. You know that you learn best hands-on, but when you get a chance to do something like music, or writing, or even reading Moby Dick, in a setting where nothing (like a grade) is at stake , give it a shot. Even consider going to California for a month, just for the heck of it. When you have nothing to lose (except time and travel money) by trying, you can make new discoveries about yourself. I think you’d like that.
I hope we get to hear more about your doings.
Elizabeth
I always enjoy hearing the episodes from Leland. I hope he enjoys high school more as time progresses. Have a good summer, buddy.
Leland: You make Vermont proud by being who you are and not pretending. You may wear the label of, “student,” but you are also a teacher to us in these interviews with Erica. May I recommend that you use your hands-on skills (and math and art and financial planning and geography) to build yourself a canoe, travel to Minnesota and explore the wilderness there while writing a journal/book. It will not be boring as you paddle and portage and rest and survive the challenges. I never saw any avacado toast there. I did meet strong girls there who were not bored by their month-long trips outdoors. I know you are wise, you carry a knife.
I love Leland!!!!! I want him to run for president! You should get an award just for these shows alone.
Wow. Thank you for an inspiring, honest and real conversation. I can’t wait to see how your next year goes. What great questions, Erica. So great.
I look forward to hearing from you, Leland, every year. You are one of the most thoughtful, self-aware people I have met (and I feel like I’ve met you through these podcasts). And I’m including grown-ups in that! Not many of us know how best we learn or how to go after a life that fits who we want to become. You seem to be well on the way to determining your future on your own terms. Best of luck at Barre Tech next year. I can’t wait to hear how it goes!
I heard an introductory burst of Leland’s deepened adolescent voice and tears rushed to my eyes…I had to stop listening, but feel ready to try again soon. I think it was that cosmic pang of empathy for the way we fly through time that made me cry…Leland, “tender and junior Buddha” (in Whitman’s words) and all I imagine he and we go through as we grow…but at least we have beautiful human artistry like yours to loft our wings as we speed our way along…
Enjoy yourself, Leland. Thank you for this. I recommend checking out places you’re curious about.
Greetings from Oregon.
Sean
I absolutely love Leland. What a wonderfully smart, insightful, self-aware, present person.
But Erica? It really bothers me that you “have to ask Leland about girls every year.”
For one thing, none of us HAVE to ask anyone else about something that’s entirely personal to them. You know that old trope of family members asking the still-single adult daughter every Thanksgiving, “So? Is there a guy? When are you gonna get married? When are you gonna give me grandchildren?” You know how we all roll our eyes when we hear that, because it’s so categorically obnoxious?
This feels like that. Why do it?
For another thing, asking Leland “about girls every year”makes a lot of assumptions about his sexuality and how it will continue into the future. Who says he’s attracted to girls? Who says he’s attracted only to girls? Who says he’s attracted to anyone?
This section of the episode felt liked we’d stepped back a bunch of notches into an unenlightened past. I love SO MUCH about “Rumble Strip” — I’ve recommended it to SO many people. But this was one several-minute stretch that I didn’t love as much. Thanks.
I agree with you that this is a stupid question. I also agree that I don’t ‘have’ to ask Leland that, and, at nearly 50, having never been married, I know of what you speak. Thanks for pointing it out.