My name is Joe Reese '12. I am a freshman at Wabash this year and am from Crawfordsville. I swam for Crawfordsville High School for the last four years and earned three varsity letters. I also swam two seasons for the Sugar Creek Swim Club. My high school event was the 500 freestyle. One of my favorite swimming memories was when I beat another swimmer in the 500 freestyle at our sectional prelims by one one-hundredth of a second. Another favorite swimming memory of mine was my team’s 104th straight duel-meet victory. One of my favorite things to do in a meet is to race the 500 freestyle and then come back to anchor the 200 freestyle. relay.

Over the summer I was a traveling man. Just two days after my high school graduation I left Crawfordsville for two magnificent weeks in Spain. This was my first time out of the United States, and it was great. There was a group of eleven of us from my high school, and we all had a good time. We were able to tour most of Spain, and we still had enough time to spend two relaxing days on the island of Mallorca, playing in the Mediterranean Sea. After returning home, I spent a week as an Assistant Scout Master at a scout summer camp at Land Between The Lakes, in Kentucky and Tennessee. I then returned home for a short Fourth of July camping trip with my family. After that, I headed out to Estes Park, Colorado for the nine-day LOGOS National Youth Conference. This is an event that my church takes part in every year. This was my fourth year to attend this conference as a youth, and I am looking forward to attending it next year as a counselor. After this trip I helped the Crawfordsville High School Marching Athenians. I spent some time helping the drum line prepare for their Indiana State Fair competition. I then moved on to freshmen orientation week at Wabash College.

I chose Wabash for a number of reasons. First, living in this area gave me a great opportunity to get to know many Wabash professors and alumni. They were all successful men and true gentlemen, and that is exactly how I want to live my life. Second, Wabash has a great alumni network, with high rates of graduate school acceptance and outstanding job connections. These things are very important to me because I plan on attending graduate school for film production. The film industry is all about making connections, and Wabash College is a great place to make them. Third, I love the deep spirit of tradition. I have always admired traditions. Keeping traditions alive means a commitment bigger than one’ self. It is doing it out of the remembrance of history, which gives one a sense of pride. I am looking forward to swimming competitively for Wabash College.
Wabash Always Fights,
Joe Reese