Luke Harrington, junior at U.R.I., had big plans for himself after graduating high school. “I was dead set on joining the military after high school,” he said. Going to college wasn’t always a part of his plan, never mind getting into Journalism. Despite what he had hoped for, Harrington decided to further his education and try a semester of marine biology. When his passion for writing didn’t fit into marine biology, he switched his major early on and ended up in journalism.

            A huge influence in his life to get to college has always been his parents. Both his mother and father were in the military right after high school. They wanted Harrington to be independent and find his own passion, instead of following directly in their footsteps. 

            Something that his parents always did with him, was taking him to the less fortunate areas of the surrounding towns he lived near. He said: “It used to scare me; it was present and I knew it was there but actually seeing it scared me.” The point of these trips was to show Harrington how lucky he was. This inspired him to want to show other people how lucky they are too.

            A second experience, similar to visiting these areas near his town, Harrington travels to Italy fairly often. This experience, even in a different country, gives Harrington the inspiration to come back home and share with his friends. Harrington said: “When I’m in Italy, my guilty pleasure is turning off my phone and deleting my social media apps for two weeks.” The purpose of this is to fully take in the experience.

            Aside from journalism, another passion Luke has is rowing. He tried out rowing his freshmen year, but never really stuck to it until he was a junior in college. Harrington said: “every morning at 5a.m. I wake up and for 15 minutes, I think of excuses of why I can’t go to practice today.”

            Waking up while it’s still dark out, especially in the cold, is always a struggle for him. But when practice is over two hours later, and he’s sitting around his teammates having breakfast, he’s ashamed of even having the thought to skip because the bonds he has made, and the relationships he has formed are totally worth it. Pushing himself to do something he typically wouldn’t do has also been a factor in why he chose journalism.

            “It’s funny what the rowing experience does to a person, because it doesn’t let you take anything for granted,” Harrington said. This experience gave Luke a new outlook on life, and on the way he sees things. It brought him closer to people he didn’t expect to meet or build any kind of relationship with.

             Harrington also found this kind of bond within his fraternity. Being a part of a brotherhood has given Harrington experiences and connections he never imagined. They became his best friends instantly and people he knew he could lean on when unexpected things happened in his life.

            The comfort that he finds in his teammates and fraternity brothers, come from the loss of a close friend. Just a year ago, one of Harrington’s best friends committed suicide. Going through something like this made Harrington “feel fragile and like anything could fall apart at any second.”

            His life was changed forever after this happened. For months, Harrington described his life as his whole world just falling apart. This drove Harrington to want to succeed more and appreciate life more than he ever did before. It really drove him to find his passion, and part of that is seeing life through

pictures.