Just as everything has an end (however interminable it might seem, like the capricious weather or COVID-19), the grueling winter season is coming to an end. Thus my lone time spent in Pesky Library, scribbling article ideas, writing articles—or most of the time, merely staring at the white Google doc page looking back at me. Now, my official career at The Governor office is coming to an end, and with it, my farewell Chillin’terview. Enter Peter Reid ‘23 and adieu, The Governor. 

Jess: How’s your day?

Peter: However your interview starts, it’s good. 

J: That’s how I usually start my interview.

P: So I’ve read. Yeah. 

J: What’s the last TV show you binged?

P: The West Wing. I loved it. It’s one of my favorite shows, it was about the early 2000s, so it’s kinda old, but it’s a great show. The West Wing of the White House is where the President works with his staff, so it’s them navigating their time in their administration and everything that can entail. 

J: Who would play you in the movie of your life?

P: Um… I don’t know. That’s a hard one. My favorite actor’s Tom Cruise, because I liked him when he was on Aviators. But I don’t know if he’d necessarily play me. But I can go with Tom Cruise. 

J: What fruit or vegetable embodies your soul?

P: Embodies my soul? Um, well, I don’t eat that many fruits or vegetables, but when I got here as a freshman, I told my mom and made her a promise that for lunch and dinner every day I will have four carrots, and I’ve done that every single day. So if I were to go with a fruit or vegetable, it has to be carrots, even though I hate them. 

J: Are there any secrets about you you’d like to share?

P: There are secrets about me, but I don’t want to share, no. 

J: Dress Code —yes or no?

P: All for it. Yes. We’re prep school. We should have some sort of dress code. And there are degrees of that. I don’t think we necessarily need to have coats and ties, but we should have something. 

J: Favorite book that you’ve read at Govs?

P: The book by Zora Neal Hurston that we read. 

J: Their Eyes Were Watching God?

P: Yeah, Their Eyes Were Watching God. And then we watched the movie, which had Halle Berry in it, and I kinda like her, she’s in a bunch of James Bond movies.

J: How about outside of Govs?

P: People don’t believe me when I say this, but it’s actually true, Pride and Prejudice, I freaking love. I can be quoting lines all day. I love it. 

J: Oh my God! You like Mr. Darcy?

P: Well, I don’t like Mr. Darcy like everybody else does. I love Jane. Jane is Jane.

J: You mean Jane Austen?

P: No, no, no. The sister. 

J: Who’s Jane?

P: When’s the last time you’ve read Pride and Prejudice? 

J: Like years ago?

P: Jane is the oldest sister.

J: Oh, Bingley’s wife!

P: Yeah! Mr. Bingley’s wife. Mr. Collins always annoyed me, but then I started to think that he was kinda funny. Well, I love Jane. 

J: Do you read any other books?

P: No. I don’t read books. I hate books. My sister loves to read, but she and I are not alike. But no. I like Pride and Prejudice. 

J: You should check out Sense and Sensibility. 

P: I think one of my aunts was reading that book. 

J: It’s also by Jane Austen. There was a phase of my life when I was going for Jane Austen and read every single book she’s written. But then I got tired of her and stopped reading Victorian novels.

P: For my sister’s 18th birthday, which was a year ago, I got her a big set of Jane Austen books. My parents liked that more than the shot glasses I gave her, too. 

J: What do you wanna study in college/what do you want to be when you grow up?

P: I don’t know. Everyone’s pretty ramped up that I’m gonna be a lawyer. I have a lot of lawyers in my family. But I don’t know if I want to be one. So I struggle with that a little bit: do I want to do a pre-law type thing, or do I want to do a political science route, or do I want to do the finance route. I really don’t know what I’ll do. But honestly, the odds are, I’d probably have something to do with the law. 

J: What’s one thing you wish people knew about you?

P: That I like when people disagree, and that I don’t like when people always agree. I like it when people can look at me and say, no, Peter, you are wrong, here’s why, and not just nod every time my mouth acts like I know everything — because I don’t. 

J: Most fun childhood memory?

P: Ever since I can remember, I always wanted to be like my dad. And on my fourth birthday, my dad took the day off from work, but I got to dress up in a suit just like him, and he took me to his work, and he’d let me act like I was him. I had this tie, which was way too long for me, because I would not wear clip-ons but will always wear the real tie. That was my fourth birthday. 

J: Any plans on reviving Young Republicans? 

P: Technically, I’m in charge of it.

J: Exactly, that’s why I’m asking. 

P: Phil Jefferies and Max handed me last year like hey, you’re in charge. I don’t know what we’d do. I probably should and there’s a big part of me that wants to, so at some point, something’s gonna happen at some point. 

J: Undercover?

P: No, it won’t be undercover. We’ll make sure people know about it. I just haven’t decided what it’ll be. 

J: Any last words? 

P: This was fun.