I pick up the phone. 9:30 a.m. Maybe a little early to be calling a college student on the brink of finals, but I dial anyway. Five rings, then an answer. “Hello?” “Hi, John?” “Yes?” “This is Jon Miller, from the Jersey City Reporter.” “Oh, Hi.” “I didn’t wake you, did I?” “No. I just got back from class.” “Oh. Well, I didn’t interrupt your studying, did I?” “Nope, I got that done at 7:30.” “Seven-thirty?” “Before I went to class. I got up at 7:30 to study.” It all makes sense when you start talking to John Spear, who with his casual slip-on clog shoes and close-cropped hair, looks like any college kid. But the 19-year-old St. Peter’s student, who should be getting ready to declare his major, will instead be donning a mortar board and gown at graduation on May 21. In an age when most college students spend more than four years at the ivory tower, and many others go on the “five-year plan”, the St. Peter’s sophomore with the 3.89 GPA will end his whirlwind 17-month tour. Though he’ll walk with the graduates in two weeks, he won’t get his sheepskin yet -he still needs to take four classes this summer. Rough spots But don’t think it’s been easy. When Spear trekked down from his bucolic Washingtonville, N.Y. home to the bustling Kennedy Boulevard campus two years ago, Spear experienced the classic “culture shock.” “I came down here and didn’t feel like I belonged,” he said. So last spring, Spear began telling his classmates he planned to graduate after his second year. Of course, they thought he was nuts. But Spear was undeterred. At the beginning of the school year, he clipped a quote from British author Walter Bagehot that he had found in his course catalog: “The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.” It’s become a motto of sorts, and with time Spear has grown to appreciate Jersey City, if not love it. “If I had to do it over again, I’d stick around for two-and-a-half, maybe three years,” he said. Tragically, Spear’s father Michael, a high school science teacher, was killed last February in a car crash. But Spear has derived inspiration from the loss. “It’s been a motivational force,” he said, “I realize I have a limited time here, and I want to get done as much as I can.” The organizer Spear’s class list brings new meaning to the term mind-boggling: Theology, Spanish, Business Law, Western Civilization, Advanced Accounting Theory, Taxation, Managers’ Software, Financial Software, Financial Management, and to round it out, Philosophy. Spear naturally has an organizing book, but as opposed to this reporter, who scrawls notes and “to do” lists on the backs of crumpled ATM receipts and files them in his shirt pocket, the St. Peter’s student blocks out time – in minutes – to devote each day to studying, errands and activities. But does he, um, block out his weekends the same way? “No,” he said matter-of-factly, “I usually get everything done during the week.” A basketball lover and baseball fanatic who still has time to play three intramural sports, Spear eventually wants to own and operate his own sports franchise. He plans to begin a Master of Business Administration, and has been accepted to Hofstra, St. John’s and Pace University. Spear’s speedy graduation was aided by 35 Advance Placement credits, but now he wishes he had taken a placement class for English, his least favorite subject. “That’s my one regret,” he groaned. This summer, Spear will take Prose, Fiction, Poetry and Drama. On the day of Spear’s interview, he was preparing to go buy a corsage for his spring formal date. As he was leaving the dormitory, he ran into a friend. “Hey, John, did you call St. John’s yet?” “Oh no,” said Spear, “I forgot!” A chink in the armor, perhaps?
Our Digital Archive from 2000 – 2016
