Insta-Interview
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Name: Ben Staadecker
Major: Hotel Administration
Hometown: Seattle, Wash.
Where do you live at Cornell? I live four miles off campus on the edge of a maple forest.
Why do you live so far away? Part of it is to get a physical distance from Cornell and be able to ride my bike. I like living near the forest so I can help the trees. I also apprentice for a leather craftsman who lives nearby.
How did you end up doing that? I met him because my sister who also went to Cornell was his sales representative. I wanted to do something where I could work with my hands.
What can you make? I started off by learning the basics — how to cut, dye and punch the leather. Now I can make belts, wristcuffs and bags. I made the suspenders I’m wearing.
What year are you? I’m a junior, but I took last year off.
Why did you decide to do that? I wanted to answer questions in myself that I couldn’t answer at Cornell.
Such as what? Such as ‘Do I truly enjoy the study of knowledge’ or was I just learning because I had to?’
What did you do for the year? I worked as an accountant in London for four months, and I read a lot.
What did you read? I read Russian authors like Tolstoy. I also read books about politics, and I read The Fountainhead. My favorite book was called Shibumi. It’s about having an awareness of art in everything you do.
What did you do after that? I spent a month walking from London to Paris.
Where did you sleep, and what did you eat? I slept in fields and forests and stopped in towns I passed to get food. The first night the ground froze I woke up shivering from the cold. It took me three days to find a real sleeping bag.
Were you in touch with anyone while you were walking? I mailed letters to my parents from some of the towns I passed by, and I called them once.
Were they upset that they had so little contact with you? At first my mom was like, ‘Was I such a bad mom that you have to leave me?’ But my dad had taken time off of school to work on a farm, so he understood.
How did you get from England to France? I took a boat.
How did you know where to go? I used a compass. At one point, I got myself a map. After three days with the map, I started to go crazy wondering if I had strayed off the path I’d set for myself and gotten lost. But, I’d been walking for two weeks without a map and never felt that way, so I threw out the map. It showed me that only when there was something telling me what to do did I feel pressure to conform and follow the directions exactly. I’m much better off figuring out my own path.