A few weeks ago, rapt with attention during history teacher Bill Sutton's explanation of "unitary executive," I happened to look out the window, and there, perched on the balcony outside the library, was senior Andrew Lovdahl. It's not like Lovdahl was easy to miss out there. He stands 6 feet 5 inches, which, according to Lovdahl, is the same as .00105 nautical miles. Anyway, the whole class noticed him; Sutton waved at him. Lovdahl was unfazed, and went about his contemplative business. Right there, right then, I needed to know the rest of his story. Via e-mails and live conversations, Lovdahl was generous with his views about time spent on library balconies and about his Uni career in general. Having graduated Saturday night with the other 56 members of the Class of 2009, Lovdahl plans to major in biology at the University of Chicago this fall.

What three adjectives best describe you?

Andrew Lovdahl receives the James Tobin Award for Excellence in the Social Sciences from social studies executive teacher Janet Morford during the year-end awards ceremony May 19. Gargoyle photo by David Porreca (click to enlarge)

Jeremy Kemball suggests velocipedalian, taciturn, and towering. I like the first two, but being tall isn't really a state of mind, so I'll replace towering with absent-minded. When I don't have any demands on my attention, I just walk out the door and keep walking, or find a nice spot like the library balcony, and get utterly lost in thought. It's always surprising how few people are actually outside at night. When I do have demands on my attention, I can always look out the window and get the same effect. I suppose the main idea here is, demands on my attention usually fail to be demanding.

In all of your years at Uni, what was your favorite class?

Field Bio [taught by biology teacher David Stone]. The fact that I considered it a normal part of my routine to get up on Sunday morning, bike to Uni with a butterfly net strapped to my back and jars of anesthetics in my pockets, and make small talk about ephemeroptera and nymphalidae during the car ride to some unfamiliar corner of the county makes me appreciate Uni a little more than I already do. [Also] seminar [Bill Sutton's senior history seminar]. We talked very seriously about how much we would work on our papers at home, shared desserts about every other day, helped fill Sierra Marcum's senior year quote book, laughed about the plight of the physics students across the hall …. These memories prevail over those of actually writing the 60-odd pages. My total footnote count for the year was 244. I'm not sure whether that's something to be proud of.

Tell me about your enthusiasm for biking.

This year, the entire year, I actually made it to school and back on my own by biking or walking. It was cool. It was less than two miles, but it was a decent trip. A few days I had to walk and there was snow on the ground; two inches of ice covered the street and things. A really fun day was when it was like 30 below zero, the day with the wind chill, and I wore like four sweatshirts and ski masks and I could see my breath crystalizing on the ski mask as I was walking. For what it's worth, I made it the whole year. I could keep talking about bikes. Bikes are the best invention ever, basically. They're just a lot of fun. My defining moment of Uni was riding my bike up and down the halls on senior prank night.

How's your summer shaping up?

One day in genetics Mr. Stone mentioned that people interested in summer lab work could send a résumé to such-and-such an e-mail address, and then I found a few weeks later to my mild surprise that I had a full-time job in the UIUC entomology department. (I could write "to my mild surprise" before pretty much anything that I write about myself. Maybe it'll be the title of my autobiography.) I would summarize my job description as Science (the capital S feels important). As far as I can tell, it's a rough combination of what I did in Mr. Stone's field bio class and what I do when I volunteer with the Urbana Park District and Allerton, except somehow, I'm getting paid for it. I think my salary is actually coming from the Obama stimulus package.

Besides Science, I look forward to frisbee matches, picnics, swimming, breaking my record for continuous hands-free bicycling (only about a mile as it stands), finding a way into this abandoned building between the railroad tracks on State Street, reading a good deal less than I'd like, going on late-night runs, seeing the Iron & Wine concert on Sept. 19, taking an obligatory farewell tour of Champaign-Urbana on the 20th, driving north for a few hours on the 21st, and then hanging out in my castle at the University of Chicago until Christmas.

Any words of wisdom for current and future Uni students?

Having two free periods is like having superpowers. It sounds cool, and often is, but it can also be your ruin. One memorable Friday last month I had fourth free, then lunch, spent five minutes in fifth before being dismissed, had sixth free because I'd already had health, had seventh free like usual, and then showed up to eighth hour about three years older than I was that morning.