Jeremy Vincent

"I like that the only thing philosophers can really agree on is questions."

-Jeremy Vincent, Sophomore, Philosophy Major

With IUPatties being this past weekend, I really wasn’t expecting to find anyone willing to talk to me on Sunday morning. Still, I figured it’d be worth a try.  If anything it would at least give me a chance to get out of my dorm. I walked across campus looking for people, but the numbers were rather thin. However I will admit that I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were actually some people out and about. Not many- but it wasn’t as dead as I was expecting. I was astonished to see that there were even people walking and standing in the middle of the Oak Grove. Despite the decent turn-out of individuals, one could tell that many of them had places to go and people to see.

That was until I saw the subject of this interview from where I was standing in the Oak Grove. I was just standing beside stairs near Clark Hall, and he was sitting on a bench by himself in front of the library- looking out across it- still as a statue. He wouldn’t have really stood out to me had he been moving- but out of everyone in the area at that time- he was the only one who seemed staying in one place.

Figuring I might as well chance it, I made my way up the library steps and then asked him if I could interview him.

“Sure,” he smiled, and even made some room on the bench so I could sit down next to him. The two of us were both looking out towards the Oak Grove as we began talking.

“What is your name?” I asked him.

“My name is Jeremy Vincent.”

“What is your major?”

“My major is Philosophy.”

“What year are you?”

“I think with how many credits that I have that I am a sophomore. I went to school in Florida for a little bit. I don’t think any of them were really consecutive semesters. I also did some AP classes and got AP credits. It’s my first semester here at I.U.P.”

“Oh cool!” I congratulated him. “Where are you from?”

“I’m from Blairsville, it’s like twenty minutes south of here. It’s a small-town- but it’s all right.”

He didn’t say any more about it. I didn’t push either. I was willing to listen to whatever it was he wished to tell me. So instead I went on and asked him, “So you said that this is your first semester at I.U.P. Where did you go to college before you came here?”

“It changed its name since I’ve been there. Originally it was Edison Community College. When I went to it, it was called Edison State College. Now it’s called like Florida Southwest College or something like that. I feel like that the college is trying to be a university. They started off as a community college and then they were given recognition by the state.”

He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Eh. They’ll get there one day.”

“Where is Edison?”

“It’s in Fort Myers, Florida.”

“Why did you decide to first go to college in Florida?” I asked him.

“Well the story is that I went to high school in Blairsville- I went there my whole life. Then I wasn’t going to college, I tried working the restaurant job that I had. I knew then that it wasn’t going anywhere quick. I moved to Florida and lived with my grandparents- they retired down there. I did some college down there, lived down there. I did some jobs and took some classes there. I was there for about three-and-a-half years. I came back, and I worked at Romeos for a while. Then I finally got into the University here.”

“Why did you decide to come to I.U.P.?” I asked him.

He laughed as he explained. “I was living in the area, and it was close. The way I look at it is- what else can I do in this town? I like it here, it’s pretty cool.”

I wanted to see if I could go deeper into this story. “Why did you decide to go and live with your grandparents in Florida?”

“I had problems,” he told me. “Essentially it was running away from my problems.”

From the way he responded I could tell that he didn’t want to go too much into what those problems were. As curious as I was at finding out what they were- I decided not to push. Among the many things I’ve learned in life is that everyone is entitled to their secrets- and don’t always have to reveal what makes them most vulnerable save those they feel comfortable with.

So instead I listened as he went on and told me, “I realized though that you can’t run away from your problems. You have to solve them. Which is what I did. It was a good experience though for the most part.”

“Well, I’m glad you solved them,” I told him sincerely. I decided that I would try to learn about other aspects to his story. “So why did you decide to become a Philosophy major?”

“You think deeply about things. I had some trouble making some decisions on it. I had it narrowed down- and I was just looking into it. Philosophy had a lot of liberal arts studies requirements- that meant lots of electives. That meant I had more ability to choose my own classes essentially. I figured that that was cool. Besides, I could always change it.”

“How did you get to that point where you said Philosophy was where you wanted to go?”

“Originally I had chosen music. But I was too intimidated. My music studies were deficient. I never had official experience. So I was intimidated. I guess I could have gone with it. I think it was not so much making the decision as finding what was for me. I mean I thought about Psychology and Philosophy- both of them are general. Philosophy was just even more general. I like that the only thing philosophers can really agree on is questions.”

To my surprise, he then went and asked me, “What major are you?”

It threw me off. Never before during my experience interviewing for Faces of I.U.P. had anyone really asked me any questions. They were content with answering mine. However I humored him and replied, “I’m a Communications major.”

He laughed. “I see now why you’re doing this blog. This makes more sense.”

I laughed and decided that I should ask another question before he fully turned on the tables on me. 

“Why did you originally want to go into music?”

“I learned guitar when I was fourteen. I liked rock bands- that was a theme of my life for the past ten years. I was playing a lot of music at the time, and writing my own music. It was a pretty good time. Then when it came to actually doing it- it didn’t go as well as I had hoped. I had a few gigs that went well, but others that didn’t.”

He was silent for a few moments before laughing. “I actually haven’t picked up a guitar in a long while. Don’t have the time.”

I laughed. “So you’re sitting out here looking at the Oak Grove, just observing. Do you do it often?”

“I don’t really do it often, but I do like people-watching. It can be especially amusing. It can be mundane at times, but then you witness those moments where people do something out of the ordinary. Makes you wonder why people do what they do.”

“Is that one of the many questions you ask yourself as a philosophy major?”

“Yeah, it’s one of them. I like to ask lots of questions. It sometimes gets me into trouble.”

“How?” I asked him. “Do you get in trouble with anyone?”

“Not really. It’s mainly just getting stuck trying to find an answer. You try and find the answers, but sometimes there’s none.”

“Why were you here by yourself?” I asked him.

“My girlfriend didn’t want to come. She’s doing laundry, and she wanted to stay at the house since she has schoolwork to do.”

Before I could come up with another question, he asked me, “What about you?”

“It’s kind of hard to interview someone when more than one person comes up to them” I told him. “I try not to overwhelm my subjects.”

“Makes you more approachable?” he asked me.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Tell me more about this blog,” he said.

This threw me even further off than the past two questions. I hadn’t realized how quickly he could easily turn the tables. Jokingly I asked him, “Aren’t I the one who’s supposed to be asking the questions?”

He smiled and shrugged. “No reason why it can’t go both ways.”

I nodded. “Fair enough,” I told him again and went on to explain what the blog was about, and what I was going to do with our interview, and again I told him that if there was anything we talked about that he didn’t want mentioned that I wouldn’t.

He nodded in understanding. Then he went on and asked me, “How do you make a blog? I’ve heard of people doing it. I just wouldn’t know how. I don’t have Facebook or any other types of social media. I have heard of a blog though and I think the concept is cool. What does a blog entail?”

“Whatever you want to talk about,” I explained to him. “It’s basically a journal except it’s not written in a book.”

“Are there sites for that?”

“Yep, there’s lots of them.”

“What would a successful blog be?” he asked me.

I shrugged. “However you choose to measure it, I guess.”

“What do you consider successful?”

I recounted my idea of a successful blog to him. Which I have chosen to keep to myself. More to just keep this blog post about Jeremy rather me. When I finished, I asked him, “What do you think makes something successful?”

“I guess it depends on what it is you’re talking about,” Jeremy told me. “I’m actually taking a class right now that tries to answer the question about what makes life a success. It’s called Philosophy and the Good Life. So I’m trying to figure that one out.”

“Is there one thing you’re certain of?”

“That there’s a lot of things that it’s not. Some of them I’ve tried, so I know. To be honest I don’t really have a set idea. Recently in my class we’ve been discussing Confucianism and Daoism. They’re both about being a part of something bigger. Whether that it’s society as a while or just the universe as a whole.”

“Do you often find yourself wondering if you’re a part of something bigger?” I asked him.

Jeremy laughed. “I don’t know. I think that the question in itself is pretty complicated. I wish I really had time to sit down and really ask myself those kinds of questions. Yet I’m always being distracted by my assignments and work.”

“Do you still work at Romeo’s?” I asked him.

“Nah, I quit that last November. I’m a personal care aide now. I’ve had quite a few interesting experiences with that with people I worked with before. I now help an older couple though, and they’re really nice. The job can be demanding at times but it’s rewarding. They’re good people and they need help, and I appreciate the pay. It’s good stuff.”

“What do you plan on doing with your Philosophy degree?”

“I don’t know. You can go up to the Philosophy department and they’ll tell you what you can do with it. I actually just did an interview here myself not too long ago with one of philosophy professors. People do all kinds of things with it, he told me. He also told me that the easiest transition is going into law school. They have the Philosophy Pre-Law track here at I.U.P. You can basically double it with anything. I’m still thinking about what I’m going to do with it. I think way too much and I end up stalling. I would like to think more about it, but right now I’m just focusing on assignments and classes, and trying to make my girlfriend happy.”

He happened to look down at his watch and he looked up at me. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to cut you off man, I have to go in the library and take care of a few things.”

I nodded and told him it wasn’t a problem. 

As we closed off our interview he said to me, “It’s cool what you’re doing, man.”

“Thanks,” I said gratefully. I then thanked him for letting me interview him.

“No problem,” he told me.

Then he caught me completely by surprise by hugging me. For a few moments I was a little dazed- not going to lie. I hadn’t expected it, and I wasn’t sure what I should do. After a few seconds though I embraced him, and we stood like that for a couple of moments. Until finally he pulled away from me. Again I thanked him, and then he made his way towards the library. He turned smiled at me as he approached the door. As he opened it he said to me, “Have a good day, man.”

“You too,” I told him.

With that being said he went into the library. I decided it was time for me to go and run some errands of my own before my Sunday. So I made my way back to my dorm to drop off my equipment, my thoughts lingering on my interview with Jeremy.

While I didn’t get to know much about his past, I did get to know about his present. I know that he’s still asking himself questions about life and where he is going from here, as well as trying to figure out where he fits in this space that we call the universe. I hope someday that wherever he is now, that he will have his chance to figure out where he stands. Though I didn’t get to know about his backstory- I can tell from what I’ve talked to him about that he has had quite a few adventures. As I recounted before in this post, not all journeys are meant to be shared with just anyone. Stories may be meant to be told, but who tells them and when is up to no one else but the person with it.

Unfortunately this post has come to an end. On an upside, if you’re reading this- congrats! You survived IUPatties! You’ll now get to be able to read more about the stories of the Faces of I.U.P. Which is always a great thing since there’s going to be stories to tell for a long while yet.

Be sure to check in next time. Until then, catch you later!