By Glen Herbert

So many people associated with RLC—the students, staff, alum, and even friends—march to a distinctly different drummer. The profiles that I’ve done for the Lighthouse, our alumni newsletter, reflect that. These are lives that have lots of hairpin turns. Morgan Barrie ’97, for example, has been a ski instructor, a sound engineer for the Discovery Channel, and a recruiter in the automotive industry; he mentored youth with mental health challenges, toured as a musician across Europe, and is now the operations manager for a conservation authority.

Not everyone has such a long list, but all seem to believe that the possibilities in life lie on the other side of “Yes.” Peter Hume, ’84, graduated high school and drove to Hollywood to become a writer. Brock Grossman ‘12 followed his interest in street art to a position with the Microsoft studio. Sarah Mahon ‘03 joined the military. I spoke last week with a current student, Franklin ‘24, who came to RLC from his home in the Bahamas. His trip here was his first time venturing outside of his home country. He’d never seen snow. He said that he was looking for something different and chose RLC.

‍“It was an interesting fit for me.”

‍These people are simply prone to embrace the adventure of it all. Tom Symes ‘88 is, too. He relatively recently moved to Port Hope from downtown Toronto. He left the city and started a new business in a new industry simultaneously. “When we moved, I was like, ‘I love it,’ and then I was, ‘Oh my god, what have I done?’”

He likely thought the same thing when he arrived at RLC in the mid-1980s. He was a provincially ranked tennis player and was used to training three and four hours a day. RLC didn’t have a tennis program. When he arrived in Bricks, one of his roommates was “beyond a rocker. Listening to this band Rat, and ACDC. Just crazy. There were a lot of head-banger guys there. Which was not my group,” he says. “You know, being a Cricket Club boy who played tennis.” He told me, fully aware of the understatement, “It was an interesting fit for me.”  

But it was a good one, despite any outward appearances. He got on with the guys in Bricks, and otherwise, “I had a big mouth and could run fast.” He remembers the teachers when he talks about his time here. They were “interesting and young. They were really interested in how they got you to remember things and learn in a way that we enjoyed.” Blair Sharpe, he says, “always really did bring interesting things. It was almost like Dead Poet Society. He thought outside of the box. Mr. Cole, to this day, I reference things that he said.”

‍From junior sales to the Cannes Advertising Festival

‍After Rosseau, Tom went to Ryerson for a marketing certificate and got his real estate license. But, there was a recession, so he took a sales position at Brunico Communications, a magazine publisher. “That company was incredible for me,” Tom says. He did well, and the company continued to promote him. Tom moved into management, became involved with the editorial team, and, in time, became publisher, essentially running the ship. He developed an international commercial production magazine and a brand launched at Cannes in 1999. It was successful, and he built a team before moving into the film production world proper.

“It was fun,” he says. He was travelling the world. Life was good. “Then, after that, I went into a job that wasn't creative enough for seven years at a content marketing agency.” He felt they weren’t taking enough risks, but other interests were also tugging at his sleeve. He’d become involved professionally in interior design, where his talents and passions intersected. Tom had always thought of interior design as a hobby he passionately enjoyed. Over the years, Tom had been profiled in Canadian House and Home for work on his personal properties. So, he decided to start an interior design-build company.

He admits that he was initially afraid to make the jump, partly because of all his success in the marketing business. “It was a big deal to create a company just for yourself and not have somebody backing you.” But in 2020, that’s what he did. He says that it’s been intimidating, though it’s hard to imagine that anything intimidates him. But this did, “because I was used to knowing everything and everybody. It was easy for me to connect the dots before, whereas now, every job is different. I don’t have a degree [in interior design], so I had to learn independently. But I just figured it out.” He has a team, as well as freelancers, to handle administrative tasks. In a relatively short period, he’s risen to the top of his game, albeit a different game than before.

‍“you look back ... and you think, wow, we were lucky to be able to do that.”

‍Running an interior design company can feel a long way from sharing a room with head-bangers in Bricks. When I ask how RLC prepared him for the life he’s lived since high school, Tom answers without a pause: “Structure.” “Each day was structured and organized. With the daily schedule and study hours. It was imperative to have that in your artillery when you got out of school, and it helped me a lot.”

He felt the class size was important, too. “In a smaller class, you tend to learn to pay attention. Your attention is there in a way it isn’t in a large class. And I thought that was good for me, from a learning perspective.”

“I still use those types of skills,” those associated with structure, organization, and attention, “and just learning to deal with other people from all over the place, all over the world.”

And it was getting out of your comfort zone. “Building a quinzhee and sleeping in it for three nights! I tell that story quite often because that wasn’t in my wheelhouse as something that I would do. Ever. It just gave you a bit of a backbone and [the knowledge] that you can do things completely outside your comfort zone. I tell people I went into Killarney with eight kids and Mr. MacLeod. We piled up snow and let it set while we skied and collected wood. Came back, dug it out, put candles in it, and it got warm, and you slept in it.” (Mr. MacLeod also had to build a fire the next morning to thaw out Tom’s boots because he left them outside overnight. Another learning moment.)

Tom retells those stories partly because they’re fun and partly because they seem so out of character, both at the time and now, all these years later. But as he talks, it’s clear that they are important memories for him, ones he likes to turn over and share occasionally. He tells me, “You know, you’re safe, but [the teachers at RLC] push you. Which I think is important. I didn’t think that at the time. I liked being in the quinzhee! In my sleeping bag.” The rest? “I didn’t love it, honestly,” he says. “But I got a lot out of it. I enjoyed cross-country skiing and being out there in the middle of nowhere. It was beautiful, and you don’t get experiences like that [otherwise].

“It was difficult. At the time, you were thinking, 'Oh my god, what are we doing? But it’s things like that that you look back on, and you think, wow, we were lucky to be able to do that. ' And I reference it quite a bit, just at dinner parties or out talking to people.”

‍“It’s just nice to see what people have done with their lives. And to be appreciative of everything.”

‍Tom attended the 1980s reunion event last fall hosted by Kelly Carrick ’85, one of the guys he met that first day in the Bricks all those years ago. Tom says it was nice to meet Kelly again now, noting that he's matured into a great person with a softer side that he related well to. He admits that he had been out of touch with the school for some time, but he wanted to reconnect with the teachers first and foremost. Blair Sharpe, Elinor Cole, Mr. Devenish. “Part of it is just seeing some of the people you went to school with, catching up with them. Being an adult, it’s on a different level. It’s just nice to see what people have done with their lives. And to be appreciative of everything. It’s pretty heartwarming to see the big RLC logo and the canoes. I like hearing them talk about what they want to do with the school. It’s just an excellent cause.”  

It is, and not always for the reasons we think. RLC is a place where there’s a different drummer, approach, and way of being. Tom had spent a year at Ridley College before RLC, a school with more stature, history, and starch. But it wasn’t the right fit. RLC was. And that’s what Tom needed at that moment, just like the students that attend the school today. They find friends and mentors; they learn and grow; and they’re empowered, then and for years after, to say “yes.”

Tom Symes ‘88 is an interior designer who designs unique, livable interiors for private spaces. For more, see https://www.tdesignandbuild.com/