By Alex Chantilas ’18
At the beginning of the week, I got to sit down with Mr. Eric Peterson, our newest edition to the English department, who was excited to be in a different environment. He shared with me what it was like being new to Cincinnati, his excitement to bring his musical personality to our school, along with a few other things. If you haven’t noticed him yet, or don’t have him as a teacher, you can spot him by his good-natured face, goatee and longer hair combo, along with his go-with-the-flow personality. In short, Mr. Peterson is an approachable guy.
From San Diego, California, he faced a big move in location, but doesn’t feel a huge culture shock. He felt that, “the stereotype for Midwestern people is right, you know, everyone is very nice here”. For him, the move to the Midwest came with having new things to do around Cincinnati. He also mentioned that while he hasn’t been here long enough to notice a huge difference between the culture of Cincinnati and the culture of San Diego, but did note that he was more likely to hear different accents as well as see some more camouflage clothing and hunting gear. He is sure though, that the longer he stays here, he’ll notice more of a cultural difference.
His move to Cincinnati was accompanied by being able to visit a satisfying amount of parks and greenspace. Because of the drought in California, this wasn’t something he was completely used to. Mr. Peterson also mentioned how much he loved the festivals, parks, and farmers markets around the area. Contrary to many Cincinnati natives’ beliefs, he thinks that there is always something to do in our city.
Before coming to Cincinnati as an educator, Mr. Peterson attended the University of California, Berkeley as an undergraduate (followed by graduate school in Chicago), where he majored in English. His favorite class was a senior seminar he took in which he studied William Faulkner and had the honor of studying under a well-known Faulkner scholar. As for what he plans to do here in school, other than educating the students, Peterson emphasized his affinity for music and his desire to share that influence in his life with Country Day. He plans to join the jazz band, which we all know will not only allow him to share his love for music, but also cement a friendship with Physics teacher and Director of Scheduling Matt Dahl. Mr. Peterson is also excited about the possibility of administrating a new guitar club with Matthew Davis ’18, a student who is interested in starting it.
For lighter topics, we talked about a couple things including his favorite book, along with his surprise at Cincinnatians’ love for ice cream. In fact, he was surprised when he went to Kroger and saw a whole half of an aisle, just filled with ice cream. “I just had to stop and admire all the flavors. In California a lot of ice cream would be like a quarter of an aisle,” he laughingly said.
Peterson’s favorite book is called The Windup Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. Not only did it sound like it could’ve been a reading straight out of Mr. Black’s class, but it tells the story of a man trying to get back in touch with an old friend. The only hint this man has at how he can get back in touch is through random changes in the architecture of a building he’s in. What he loves most about it is how “it does an amazing job of taking the way that humans relate through our interactions, and creating a figurative space for them”. Can you see why Mrs. Dunn likes him?
Overall, Mr. Peterson is a person who I found myself having an interesting conversation with, rather than having a structured “question and answer” interview. I, for one, am excited to welcome him to our community. I had a great time talking with him and would recommend that anyone strike up a conversation with him, as it’s bound to be an interesting one.
