19TransparencyEssential for the Performance of Companies and Windshields
When I went to college, all this public school girl from California wanted was to understand the exotic, preppy world of collegiate New England. I wandered the campus wide-eyed at the ivy-covered architecture, hanging gargoyles, and meandering students sporting boat shoes and shirts with popped collars. I decided to join the preppiest sport of them all, crew, to be at the epicenter of the Talbots catalog I now called home.
I don’t know why crew is called crew, but all it is a sport where people row long, skinny boats down a river. It was one of the only sports at the school where the team was not composed entirely of recruited athletes, mostly because only a few elite high schools around the country even have crew teams, given the cost of the sport. You need a boathouse to house and launch an array of expensive boats, rowing machines, and, of course, a nearby river to practice in. Due to the barriers to entry, crew remains the province of the extremely wealthy.
The first few weeks of practice were intended to weed out the weak and the lazy. Practices were held before sunrise so that those who prioritized partying (or sleeping) wouldn’t make the cut. Routines on the rowing machines were so taxing that athletes would frequently throw up from the exertion. I wasn’t in love with the early wake-ups or the monotony of the rowing machines, but I ...
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