Interview with Luke - Media Class copy

Luke Beagle is a sophomore at WVU majoring in sports and adventure media. He decided to attend WVU because his sister was there and he had a great time visiting. He considered switching his major multiple times but ultimately stuck with sports and adventure media. Luke became interested in photography at a young age and loves nature and the outdoors because of his grandfather. He had some crazy experiences during his outdoor adventures, including rescuing a girl with hypothermia and hiking through the mountains. He made close friends during his time at Knowles and felt a strong sense of self-reflection and personal growth. Luke plans to become an instructor at Knowles and possibly work in media for an outdoor company. What's your name, year, and major? My name is Luke Beagle. I am a sophomore, and my major is sports and adventure media. Why did you decide to attend WVU? My sister, she came here her sophomore year, she transferred, and then she told me to come down, and I visited her and her friends, and I had a great time, and I was like, this is the school I want to go to. What was a major part of the decision? I would say, one, they had my major, and it was the only major around, and I guess just the atmosphere of the school. When I came here, everybody was, it was just a fun place to let go. Have you ever thought about switching your major? Yes, multiple times. Everybody in my family are OTs and PTs, and I was going to do exercise physiology, and then I decided not to. Was there something that fully persuaded you to attend WVU? Not really to fully persuade me. I kind of just said, screw it, and then came here. See how it would go. When did you become interested in photography? Probably back, I don't know. When I was really young, my dad, or no, my grandpa, that's when he gave me the film camera, and I started taking pictures with that, and then I got my first digital camera, and then I got really into outdoor photography, and snowboarding and stuff like that, and then I took a class at a school, at a community college beforehand, and then I just liked it from there. What made you love nature and the outdoors? Probably my grandpa. Growing up, he always took us fishing and hiking, and we literally, because growing up, he lived in the outdoors, and he built his house in the woods and lived out there, and so he always wanted us to be outdoorsy people, so we would always go out, and then once I learned all the stuff from him, I've kind of just gone from that. Where did he live? He lived in Pennsylvania, somewhere in the mountains. I don't remember where. Was he one of the closest relatives to you when you were growing up? Yeah, I would say. He was one of the closer ones. I would say I was closer to him out of any other relatives that weren't my parents. What's the craziest experience you've had while being in the Olds? I would say probably when this girl, so we were in the Grand Tetons, and this girl was not good with the cold, and she had hypothermia, and then so she was like passed out in the tent for multiple days, and eventually there was like a snowstorm, and we had to get her out, and we had to hike out like 14 miles with skis, trying to help this girl with hypothermia get back, who could barely ski or walk, and then as soon as we finally got her to the rescue point, we had to turn around and do it all back at night again through the mountains, which was pretty crazy. Was there enough food? We had like, we brought tents and food in case something went wrong, but we were able to just like trek through the night. How many people were with you? Four. Only four? Yeah, there was an instructor, and then a couple other students. How many students were there on the trip? Eleven. During your college? There were eleven students total, but then there were multiple who had to get like evac'd out, and then eventually come back once they were better. What happened to them? They, one kid dislocated his finger, the hypothermia girl, and then this other girl just got a really bad like infection, and we had to hike her out when we were in the canyons, and she was like in bad shape, and then we had to hike back. So that one, the hike wasn't that bad, the skiing was bad. The skiing? Because when we had to hike, that one girl we had to like ski out, like trek, on like cat track. Oh, like cross country? Mm-hmm. Okay. And I'm not, I'm not a very good skier. Was there ever a specific time during the walls that you wish you could have just stopped time? Probably when I did my first multi-pitch. It's, it was this pitch called Rainbow Wall, and it was about like 800 feet tall, and we got there at like, or we wake up at like 4.30, get there at like 5, and then we started climbing around like 6, and it was a seven multi-pitch, so we would like climb up, redo the ropes, set the ropes again, do that, and there was one point where I was like, there's like an overhang cliff, and you're just overhanging at least like 600 feet of free fall, and I was like set there, but my foot was like hammock hooked inside this one rock, but I was able to like sit for a while, and that was pretty, because it was still like morning. But then we ended up being on the wall until like sundown. That would probably be the moment. Were there other moments? Probably, there was one where there was a huge snowstorm, and we were in our, like in our igloos, and like me and all my friends were just sitting in the igloo like all day, and we literally just did nothing but sit and like talk in the igloo, and it's not that exciting, but that was probably one of the best days. Did you get to know each other pretty well? Yeah, it would be, like it's surprising going, because it was weird transitioning back, because it was literally like you made your best friends through that one point in time, and we all got like super close, like we were siblings, and then as soon as we left Knowles, it was so weird going back to like my real friends, and it was just like, I literally came home and I couldn't talk to my real friends for like, it was so weird, like everybody from Knowles was talking about how they were like anti-social, because you were with the same people for months straight with no phone. It was pretty crazy. Who were your friends from at Knowles? They were, one, there was one girl, she was from London. This kid was, two kids were from Alaska. One was from Montana. One was from Charleston. One was from, no, two were from California, and then Georgia. What was the other one? New York, and then Maryland, and that was about it. Okay. How did you decide to transition from an outdoor adventure college to a Big 12 sports college? I don't know. It was kind of weird. Like I definitely had time in the summer to like re, like go back to normal, but coming to college it was weird because like I've never, I've never been to a college before, but being a transfer student, like everybody in my grade already knew each other, and I don't know. It was weird. I didn't talk to a lot of people in the beginning, and then eventually I was just like, screw it. Did you ever have second thoughts about your decision to come here? Yeah, probably. There were like, because before this I was going to go to Boulder the whole time, and then I decided not to, and then I was honestly thinking about not even going to college and then working for Knowles because they were like offering jobs to kids who just had experience to go like work in the field, but I was like, I'll go to college, get my degree, and then I could probably go do stuff for the school. For Knowles? Yeah. What do you want to do with Knowles? I want to be an instructor at some point, but not like my whole job, just like get paid to go back to Knowles, but then eventually go from there and maybe do media for their school because there's not that much in the media that they have, or like become better with like outdoor skills type shit and then work for like an outdoor company and do media for them. Do photography fully or would you do videography for both? Like probably both at some point to see where it goes. Describe a time when you felt the most alive. At all? Like ever? That is a deep question. Um... Probably... Dude, this is hard. When, okay, when I was at Knowles, we had this training, it was for like rapid safety, and there was one thing where we went to like a stage five rapid, and you were like training on how to get out of a rapid, and they just had to, like you just had to throw yourself in the rapid and get like swept down the river, and I was getting like hit by rocks and everything, and as soon as I made it out, I would say that's a pretty lively feeling. How have those moments influenced you as a person? I feel like Knowles and those moments really like being out there without a phone or anything gave a lot of like self-reflection and you kind of got to know who you are, especially with those people that were always having like deep thoughts and conversations out there, but it definitely like allows you to like reflect on yourself, which was a pretty amazing thing. Okay, that's all I have. And then I'm supposed to end it. Okay, well thank you. I had a great time. Okay, you got to keep that in now.