By: Anthony Bonilla
Staff Writer
As the school year winds down, many students eagerly await summer and are ecstatic to no longer have piles of homework awaiting them after school. One senior, however, is reflecting on his accomplishments, looking forward to a fresh start in the fall, and trying to finish the school year strong. This senior is Will Bumgarner.
One of the things Bumgarner is most proud of is his Blue Rake Landscaping business. He and his two best friends started their company in their freshman year, initially clearing Ivy. Once they noticed the potential business opportunity, they quickly expanded to all kinds of landscaping.
“I really love doing landscape work, which sounds a little weird, but it’s of one of my favorite things,” Bumgarner said. “Like one day I’ll be painting a basement, [then] the next day I’ll be cleaning gutters or installing a sink. You do the most random things, and you’ve done house demo work, mowed lawns.”
In the fall, Bumgarner will attend the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Since growing up, he had always dreamed of attending UVA, as his mother had attended there. Not only are the academics and campus life top-notch, but he hopes to make new friends and see something different than Winston-Salem.
“I wanted a little bit of space just so I could feel like I was getting away, kind of being a new group of people, different people I didn’t know,” Bumgarner said. “I think it would be a good opportunity for me to get out of my comfort zone because I’ve grown up around a lot of the same people.”
Bumgarner became the captain of the tennis team during his sophomore year. As captain, he always cared for the guys in the sport and wanted them to be successful on and off the court. When he isn’t playing, Bumgarner loves to follow college basketball. His passion for collegiate athletics came from watching UVA Basketball with his family.
In fact, watching UVA win the 2019 men’s conference championship helped shape Bumgarner’s future plans. After college, he hopes to pursue a career in Sports management or become an athletic director for some of the top collegiate programs in the country.
The Next phase of his life is wide open, unpaved, and full of unknown adventures. Where many might fear how wide open the future is, Bumgarner embraces it.
“The first 18 years of your life are pretty structured, everything was just like boom, boom, boom,” Bumgarner said. “The freedom of not knowing what the rest of my life is going to be like is very freeing. It gives me a lot of room and opportunity to do a lot of things that I really want to do, [That I’m] really passionate about.”