{"id":3977,"date":"2018-01-11T19:10:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-11T19:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/?p=3977"},"modified":"2023-05-24T17:56:30","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T17:56:30","slug":"bennette-19-at-home-off-shore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/2018\/01\/11\/bennette-19-at-home-off-shore\/","title":{"rendered":"Bennette \u201919: At Home Off Shore"},"content":{"rendered":"

SaVonne Bennette \u201919 knew next to nothing about Nantucket when he applied for the Nantucket Bike Tours internship on the island. \u201cI didn\u2019t even know it was an island.\u201d He smiles.<\/p>\n

But you can\u2019t tell that was ever the case as he leads this bike tour on a warm, sunny Thursday morning in July. He\u2019s a natural on the bike, calmly surveying the road in front of him while offering the tourists in tow a smile or an encouraging word. His delivery is calm, confident, and knowledgeable.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a guy you can talk to.<\/p>\n

The eight adults on the tour are riveted as the junior rhetoric major from Carmel, IN\u2014 via Portland, OR, and Chicago\u2014talks about Absalom Boston, the first black whaling ship captain; Frederick Douglass\u2019 first speech to a white audience at Nantucket\u2019s Athenaeum; the island\u2019s Quaker heritage and history of equality among the sexes and races and stand against slavery and support for women\u2019s suffrage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing what being just 30 miles offshore can do for you,\u201d SaVonne says.<\/p>\n

Leading the group down Woodberry Lane he casually points out a classic Nantucket-style home with a cobblestone driveway, a wraparound porch, and a guest house.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the house I\u2019m going to buy someday when I make my wealth and come back,\u201d he calls out to the cyclists. \u201cYou\u2019re all welcome to visit!\u201d<\/p>\n

SaVonne reflects on why he feels so at home in a place he barely knew two months ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere I\u2019ve grown the most is in the way I think about myself. I used to keep pretty much to myself. I never felt like I had a reason to smile at somebody I walked past on the street or to get to know somebody I met in a coffee shop. But you just don\u2019t know how simply speaking to someone can change their day.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For SaVonne,<\/strong> that change began on day one when he was waiting for Jason to pick him up at the Handlebar Caf\u00e9 and one of the staff members approached him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d never met Avery before\u2014I thought he was going to tell me to move my bags off the bench.\u201d SaVonne laughs. \u201cInstead, he asks my name, he\u2019s friendly, we start talking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
SaVonne Bennette relaxes in the Bridges’ Handlebar Cafe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt was a wake-up call the first week we were here, figuring out everything we\u2019d be doing\u2014that this was about so much more than bike tours,\u201d SaVonne says. \u201cWe learned to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

That discomfort led to a new understanding of the place where he was living.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing I was expecting when I came here was that, because Nantucket is such a wealthy area, the people were going to be a little snobby. But it\u2019s really not that way at all. The people here are rich in character, very friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

What he prizes most about Nantucket is the sense of belonging he felt there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way the people of this community interact with each other is like no place I\u2019ve ever seen before. They treat each other like best friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has tried to bring that back with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I returned to Wabash, I wanted to put myself out there more,\u201d he says. \u201cAny friendship could go places you never imagined. A friend might be able to help you out someday; you might be able to help them out someday. So I\u2019ve introduced myself to a lot more people on campus, especially international students.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also become president of the Chinese Club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in the club, not very active, and Kaz Koehring \u201918, a friend of mine who was an intern at Nantucket a couple years ago, suggested I do it. I was hesitant; Kaz pushed me a little, and it\u2019s been good.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to have guys like Kaz and Joey around to give you that push you sometimes need.\u201d<\/p>\n

SaVonne\u2019s internship with NBT has altered his post-Wabash plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to get a job in business straight out of college, but now I believe I\u2019ll move to China, teach English awhile, then take the business track internationally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I left Nantucket a better person,\u201d SaVonne says. He believes he has a more positive outlook and can now \u201cpicture the cup half-full instead of half empty.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is<\/em> amazing what being just 30 miles offshore can do for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SaVonne Bennette \u201919 knew next to nothing about Nantucket when he applied for the Nantucket Bike Tours internship on the island. \u201cI didn\u2019t even know it was an island.\u201d He smiles. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":3978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-videos"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/01\/savonne-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3977"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3981,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3977\/revisions\/3981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}