Senior Aidan McGill might be a small-scale celebrity after winning this year’s Tommie Award, but to him, nobody is a stranger. Throughout his day on campus, there is no question that McGill is a friend to many and unfamiliar to few.
When I initially reached out, it was quickly clear from his willing and eager response that he is the type of person who jumps on unique opportunities and seeks to have new experiences.
In the week leading up to our meeting, McGill was quick to send his hour-by-hour schedule for the day and worked with me to ensure I would be able to get the information I needed. Once the day came, one of the first things he commented on was his need to plan.
“For me, I guess I am a planner, almost to a fault — an extreme planner. I like having everything laid out in a certain schedule. Maybe you could even tell the way I texted you, I just like having my days built out in a certain way,” McGill said.
With his packed schedule, organization helped get McGill through his day. Whether it was an internal clock that kept ticking or a simple reminder on his phone, McGill seemed to effortlessly juggle many different roles and responsibilities.
“I feel the best and most like myself when I’m insanely busy. I like feeling like it was a successful day. I just like having tasks I must get done,” McGill said.
During our longest sit-down chat at the lunch hour, McGill spoke a lot about his family, his fiancee, Brooke, and even his 14-year-old and three-month-old dogs, leaving no room to question that he’s a huge family man.
“I’m one of five kids, and all my aunts and uncles have a lot of kids as well. So, for me, I had family as a community,” McGill said. “A lot of people had friends and people they hung out with, but I had friends on top of huge pools of family, so I’m really lucky.”
A couple days later, I talked to McGill’s fiancee, Brooke Davies, since I wanted to get the perspective from someone who knows McGill just as well as himself.
On our FaceTime call, I asked Davies how she would describe McGill to people who didn’t know him. I wanted to see whether it would match the impression of him I gathered after spending just a day together.
Besides him always being busy, she described him as a person who is always on top of things, impressive and well-rounded, among many more high regards.
“Aiden is the most hardworking, determined and mentally tough person you’ll probably ever meet,” Davies said. “He’s just the guy that you want to be around, he’s super fun. On top of all of that, he figures out a way to get everything done and do really well.”
Although Davies is finishing out her undergrad at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, she said she can tell how much St. Thomas and its community mean to McGill.
Davies highlighted how glad she is to see him get the praise all of his hard work deserves.
“It’s just exciting for me to see him get recognition for all of the stuff he does there, because I know he really cares. He doesn’t just do it to have a name, he does it because he enjoys what he does,” Davies said.
Throughout the times I talked to McGill, there was no doubt he is an extrovert; our conversations felt authentic and energized. His leadership and involvement in Supply Chain and Operations Management Club, Finance Club, men’s club soccer and jobs on campus like working at Tommie Central and the AARC front desk — along with his service in the Army National Guard — are also clear indicators of how much he enjoys connecting with others.
“Some people get energy from relaxing and building back up by themselves. But for me, it’s like I gain energy from talking to people like you, or just randomly seeing people in the hallways. It’s really fun to run into an old buddy or professor, and it’s cool to have connections and friends all around campus,” McGill said.
One question I wanted to be sure to ask McGill during our day together was, “What do you wish more people asked you about?” Before responding, he sat back and smiled.
“I’m really proud of serving the Army National Guard, and people, I think, are hesitant to ask about it because they don’t fully know what it always is or what it entails. They just know I serve,” McGill said. “I went to a four-year military academy for high school, did a year of college, no ROTC, no anything at all, and I just kind of missed it. I missed the discipline, that structure.”
McGill said another perk of having a military-like routine instilled in him is that he tends to almost always be an early riser and that he enjoys his quiet mornings.
“It’s kind of fun seeing the sunrise and being up before that because it’s all so peaceful; if I walk out the door at 6:45, there’s no one on the campus yet,” McGill said.
Although he told me it is pretty natural for him to wake up early, McGill gets his day started the way he likes, with what he deemed as a fairly unpopular procedure.
“Some would call me crazy, but the first thing I do every morning is take a cold shower. I’ve been doing it for about three-and-a-half years now. Every single morning, it’s just my cup of coffee,” McGill said.
The day I spent with McGill on campus, not quite as early as 6:45 a.m., made it evident that he loved what it meant to be a Tommie and was proud of what he has been able to accomplish as a student at St. Thomas.
McGill told me that when he was a first-year that he never would’ve dreamed of becoming the Tommie Award winner — although he already knew St. Thomas was the place for him.
“I applied here, and it was the only place I wanted to go; there really was no other option. So for me, it was kind of a no-brainer. I bleed purple,” McGill said.
Livy Dunlap can be reached at dunl3109@stthomas.edu.
