“There were times when I came back at night and was really bummed out,” Hill recounts. “It was tough mentally. I told myself to pull through it—this is the game that I love.”

Nonetheless, there were times when Hill second-guessed his decisions.

“I asked myself why I was doing this,” Hill remembers. “I don’t miss [the schedule]. It was mentally and physically very draining. My time here at Harvard has been much more relaxed.”

Hill thinks too that his experience has changed him as a person. The sheer difficulty of his day-to-day routine, he notes, has built a lot of character, and Hill knows he would not be the same person without it.

Now, a junior with the Crimson, Hill finds himself playing squash in about as different a setting as possible. His years in the army, though, are never far from his mind.

“Sometimes I do think about it,” Hill says. “I use that moment in the army as motivation, that if I set myself a goal I could achieve it. When I feel down in the dumps I think about what I put myself through in the army.”

“Knowing where he came from, it’s less of a surprise as to what he’s like on the team,” Cohen adds. “[Hill’s story] explains a lot in terms of his work ethic, his motivation.”

Hill’s military service may help motivate him, but he needs nothing to encourage him to give squash his all. Even talking about the sport gives Hill an obvious degree of pleasure.

“I was very passionate about my squash [ever] since I was back in middle school and high school,” Hill says earnestly.

“My love affair with the game has not been diminished. It has only grown with time. I love the game too much to let it all go.”