When he was ten years old, Laitin spent his fifth-grade year in Barcelona where his father, a science professor at the University of Chicago, was working. Laitin also spent a year in Nigeria when he was six.

Laitin says he thinks this time abroad has shaped some of his distinguishing features among the Harvard student body.

"I enjoy being alone more than most people I know in college," he says.

Laitin says the people he knows here are "very sheltered." But he says that he, too, is sheltered. The only difference is that "I've been able to recognize that I'm sheltered," he says.

Laitin says he will finish his last semester in either the fall or the spring, depending on the sailing season. He says he may spend the fall at Harvard, then coach college or high school sailing in the spring. Or he says he may decide to teach in Puerto Rico or somewhere else abroad.

Laitin says he enjoys teaching sailing and has spent the past summers coaching sailing in different parts of the country, including Chicago and Minnesota.

Laitin is not sure what he wants to do after he graduates, but he says he knows what he doesn't want--the hard work and stress of a business profession.

"I have a feeling I'm going to flail around for a while," he says. "I don't mind it. To me there's no reason to work. I'd much rather screw around now than when I'm 80. How much fun do those 70 year-olds have in their motor homes?"

Laitin says he doesn't know if he has "the drive to do an Olympic campaign." He also says he does not like the idea of sailing boats for a company to "win races for rich folks."

Rather, Laitin says racing should be a form of pure enjoyment, despite the stress of competition.

"Racing can be very frustrating," Laitin says. "You're competing in a sport, but it's fun to do. If I'm doing [poorly] in a race, I'm still out in the water. I'm sailing. How bad can it be?"

"Everyone wants to win, but if you screw up it's not the end of the world," he adds.

In addition to sailing, Laitin has found time at Harvard to volunteer as part of the Global Education Out-reach Program.

But this has been a "low time commitment," he admits. He has maintained his original intention to devote himself to sailing as his one activity at college.

Looking back at the last four years, Laitin explains, "I have made my choices with the future in mind."

"I can't imagine myself anywhere else," he says.