Like many Tufts students, senior Matthew Hurley has plans to attend graduate school after he completes his education this May. And along with many other seniors, he is working on completing his thesis.
There is one way, however, in which Hurley is very different from most of the student body: He came to Tufts when he was 27 years old.
Hurley is a student in the REAL program, which allows students whose college careers either never began or were interrupted to come to Tufts and finish their degree, taking classes alongside other undergraduates.
After growing up in nearby Reading, Hurley began attending classes at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. After a few semesters, however, he dropped out. "After two years at college, I was frustrated that I wasn't doing well in school at the time," Hurley said.
A search for something more interesting led Hurley to one of his life's greatest passions: travel. After dropping out of school, Hurley rode a bicycle across the United States, taking temporary jobs along the way.
"I looked back and said, 'You know that road trip you never did? I'm going to do that by myself, but instead of driving a car across the country, I want to do something a little more adventurous,'" Hurley said.
According to Hurley, traveling across the country by himself was an eye-opening experience. "You learn things along the way," Hurley said. "You become more confident with everything."
After traveling for a year, Hurley's appetite for adventure was not satiated, and he continued his journey. "I went to Asia for a year," he said. "I bummed around and hitchhiked from place to place."
Hurley estimates that he has been to about 50 countries in the past nine years, including most of Asia, Europe, Central America and South America, as well as parts of Africa.
"When I began to travel as a teenager, it was to learn about the world and see new things," Hurley said. Soon, however, Hurley began to travel for location-based sports, especially mountain climbing.
Hurley estimates that he spends about two months per year mountain climbing - one month in preparation, and one month actually climbing. "Recently, I climbed Denali [Mt. McKinley]," he said. Other mountains Hurley has climbed include Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina. Next on Hurley's list is Cho Oyu, an 8000-meter-high mountain in the Himalaya.
Hurley's interest in mountain climbing began as a child, when he hiked mountains in New Hampshire with his father. In 2000, he began climbing larger mountains with a partner; the pair soon began co-leading climbing teams. "More than just the climbing, I am also involved with plan coordination, skill teaching and team leading on these trips," said Hurley, who has led groups in the Caucasus, Andes, Alaskan ranges and the Himalaya.
Besides mountain climbing, Hurley's travels have taken him sailing in the Bahamas, the British Virgin Isles and the Aegean Sea; surfing in Costa Rica; and rock climbing, hang gliding, skiing, spear fishing and bicycling across the world.
According to Hurley, however, sports are not the only reason for which he travels: He describes his second main reason as "the freedom to think."
"When at home, friends, family, work and school obligations constrain your mind and make you spend your thinking power on those tasks and the other mundane things which occupy you," he said. "When I have a philosophical idea that I want to explore, I often leave home to focus on thinking about it. Additionally, changes of environment also offer more broad evidence for introspection than everyday life does."
Though Hurley still travels extensively, two years ago he realized he wanted to do more with his life. "In 2004, I realized that although I'd been living my dreams so far by traveling, that it was not sustainable for a lifetime," Hurley said. "So I decided to pursue a sustainable and enjoyable career."
Until that point, Hurley had been working in software engineering. "I've never worked a full year. Every time I take a job, I negotiate for inordinately large amounts of vacation time or contract status so that I can take breaks," Hurley said. "Software engineering pays enough that you can live well enough off partial work years."
But Hurley's interests lied in cognitive science and computer science, not software engineering. He is especially interested in the area of artificial intelligence - the simulation of minds.
"My interest in artificial intelligence was spawned by a roommate I had who taught me about the philosophies of consciousness and mind," Hurley said. "The mind is the most interesting thing to me. Everything else in the world is fairly simple except for that one thing."
After realizing that he would need a graduate degree in order to pursue such a field, Hurley decided to pursue a new adventure: coming back to school.
It was not an easy task. "Two years ago, I was 27. I'd been working for five or six years already, and the feeling for most people in that position is just that 'here you are, you missed your chance for your education, you can't go back to that, you have to focus now on having a job and living up to social norms,'" Hurley said. "Taking the chance to come back to school showed me that you can choose whatever you want to do with your life. I don't have to just stay in a job and live the path that's sort of prescribed for somebody of a certain age group."
Hurley realized after coming back to school that many of his fears had been unfounded. He discovered that "the threat of the social awkwardness of being a student as you get older turns out to not really exist, although you think it does when you are working in an office," he said.
Hurley chose to continue his education on the Hill after his former roommate turned him on to the work of Daniel Dennett, a renowned philosophy professor at Tufts. Now, Dennett is his advisor with Hurley's Plan of Study major in cognitive science. "He's a brilliant guy," Hurley said. "It's great to go in for general advising and have great conversations with him about all the deep topics."
Despite his love of Dennett and his classes, Hurley has sped through his career as an undergraduate. "I think I didn't take a single bad class at Tufts," he said. "But I felt like, I'm this old, I better get this done fast, get it over with, so I can move on to what's next."
"When I first got here, I took six summer classes that first summer before the semester started, then I took seven classes the first semester. I just kept going at that speed," he added.
The high course load he has undertaken means that even with a double major in cognitive science and computer science, Hurley will graduate after only three full semesters of classes, plus one summer semester and a semester spent working on his thesis. After graduating this May, Hurley will attend University of California San Diego, where he will pursue his doctoral degree in cognitive science. According to Hurley, he hopes to continue in academia, conducting research and becoming a professor.
Between all his courses and his current software job at Raytheon, Hurley has still made time for his love of sports and travel. He has organized a one-day, 130-mile bicycle challenge ride for REAL students, which will take place on May 14, in addition to a kayaking trip he organized earlier in the year.
Hurley estimated that he has taken eight to ten vacations in the past year. "This is what I do," Hurley said. "I go to work, I go to school, I repeat until I get some time off, and then I go on vacation. That's sort of my life in a nutshell."
Repetitiveness aside, Hurley's life has had many adventures, with many rewards. "It's liberating to feel that you can stop what you're doing, give up your job...and go back to something that was always your goal but never seemed attainable," he said.
