Name: Benjamin Edward Hardie
Class: 2015
PCC Affiliation: None
Major: Biology
Hometown: Midland, TX
Relationship Status: Single
Activities: Davidson Outdoors Trip Leader, vocals and guitar for Ships at a Distance, Herpetology Lab volunteer (Ben wanted to get shirts that said, “Got Herps?” but it got vetoed…)
Ben and I go way back–well, as far back as spring-semester seniors can go. Freshman fall, we together championed a 300-level classics course–Greek Art and Architecture–and I realized what a rarity people like Ben are here at Davidson. Honestly, he might be the only type B personality here. Nothing ever rattles him or gets him worked up; he knows it’s all going to be okay in the end. Seriously, Davidson needs so many more Ben Hardies to keep the rest of us sane. Here are some need-to-knows about this laid-back hipster cutie.
He’s an adrenaline junkie: Most of Ben’s favorite college memories involve climbing on top of buildings (though the dome on top of Chambers is still the number-one item on his Davidson bucket list). He also fondly remembers his rule-breaking days during his freshman year living on 3rd Cannon: “We wrestled a lot–I still have a scar on my back from a rug burn I got doing that. And we had Nerf wars. One time we had a snowball fight with marshmallows and then we ended up swinging things at them and turning it into a baseball game. And then Ed [Park, hall counselor] came back and got really mad. It was the only time he ever yelled at us. And he made us clean it all up. It was awesome.”
He’s a pop culture junkie: Ben is a self-proclaimed master of Star Wars trivia–half his bookshelves at home in Texas are filled with Expanded Universe novels. “I remember Star Wars history better than U.S. history,” he admits. If Hollywood were to make a Ben Hardie biopic, he’d want none other than Obi-Wan Kenobi–Ewan McGregor–to play him. “And it’d be titled something simple. The Life and Times of Ben.” He also prioritizes the majesty of film above almost everything else–if his apartment were burning down and he could only save one thing, it would be a toss-up between his guitar and his pirated copy of Russian Borat. And when asked about his celebrity crush, Ben knows his limits: “I can’t compete with Jay-Z, so I guess it’s Scarlett Johansson.” He further confesses that although it may surprise some people, he loves Taylor Swift and knows all the words to “Blank Space”… though you’re more likely to find him singing along with some obscure Chilean bands, of course.
He’s a sandwich junkie: I asked Ben what kind of sandwich he would be, and he just described his ideal sandwich. “I’m going to go from the bread in–tasty wheat bread, not crappy, toasty, crunchy on the outside, inside is soft. Some kind of gourmet mustard. Dijon works. Lettuce, tomatoes, rotisserie seasoned chicken, swiss cheese, maybe hummus too. Plain hummus. Did we get tomatoes in there? Yeah. It’s a good sandwich. I’m a good sandwich.”
He’s a wisdom nugget junkie: “Add a Carl Sagan quote, because those are what I base my life on.”
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” – Carl Sagan