Cahill remembers that as a freshman, he found high school overpowering, but eventually learned to use his time wisely. He says that since freshman year, his experience at Quigley has been "great," and he has felt "comfortable, despite the workload." It is easy to see how Cahill has been comfortable; meeting new people in school is much easier when one gets involved. Cahill has certainly done that. He has been in numerous clubs and activities ever since his freshman year. Now that he is a senior, Cahill holds officer positions in almost all of these activities. The following table provides a quick summary of his activities.
 

 James adds that play and baseball are huge time commitments, but encourages everyone to join these and challenge themselves to excel in anything they want. He especially encourages everyone to join the speech team, where, “you get to get up at six o’ clock to compete around Chicago, where the ratio of girls to boys must be five to one!” he says. His other favorite activity is the annual play, where he has “gotten really good roles and really developed as an actor.” He says that out of these two, he cannot pick one as his single favorite.

    With all these in-school activities, it must be extremely tough for anyone to keep their grades up, but Cahill found a way. He says his secret is not so different; it is just doing his work. Other than this, he admits that teachers like him and this is part of the reason for his success. It helps for teachers to like a student if he is involved in so many extracurricular activities. Also, Jimmy says that train time is very valuable for doing homework, and he knows he is a good writer. Jimmy is one person who knows when to get to work and does not get too easily distracted once he has started.

    So not only does Cahill have time to be involved in school, he has time to do his homework, and surprisingly with this busy school schedule, he even has free time to have some fun on his own. In his spare time, Jimmy likes to go to the movies, or live action plays. Jimmy is also a huge Cubs’ fan, and attends many games during the season. He is not a White Sox fan. You cannot blame him; he receives so much abuse just because they had a more successful 2005 than the Cubs. His locker, for example was decorated with Sun-Times newspapers a certain autumn day this past November.
 

    Another thing that Jimmy really loves is playing violin. He is very talented at this, as he has been playing since he was in second grade. He joined the Northside Youth Symphony when he was in fifth grade, where he met his current Quigley classmate, Evan Davis. Evan really helped Jimmy grow at Quigley, as did many other friends that he knew before high school. These friends include: Ted Rosean ‘03; Sean Rosean '05, Matt Querol '05, Will Jordan ‘05; and Jose Davila '06, Evan Davis '06, and Fernando Martinez ‘06. These friends helped him grow emotionally, as did the whole Quigley experience.

    Cahill feels that at Quigley, he has grown spiritually as well. His faith and understanding of God have grown thanks to Quigley’s theology classes and formation programs. He realizes that faith means relating Jesus’ teachings and the Church’s teachings with real world humanitarian concerns. This helps make his time at Quigley worthwhile along with many other memorable activities.

    Jimmy recalls a “naughty incident” that occurred his sophomore year as being very memorable. Some guys were screwing around and throwing Gogurt packages. One package hit him, but he says he knows it was not accidental. Jimmy was not going to just let this go and flung it back at the perpetrator. The package then splattered all over the wall! Fortunately, Cahill is a good guy and cleaned the mess himself without getting into any trouble. This is something very rarely seen, the impulsive side of Jimmy Cahill.

    Cahill has experienced many other fond memories from Quigley, many of them in the classroom. His favorite classes throughout the years include his freshman religion class with Father Jakubik. Another class that he really loved in his freshman year was his Latin class, which was taught by the Dean of Students, Mr. McKenna (Mr. Kerwin at the time). He really enjoys the way Mr. McKenna teaches, regardless of what his name is, with his classes “deluged in humor.” Another teacher who Jimmy praises for his great teaching skills and “passion for the classics is Doc(tor Napiwocki).” Of course, Doctor knows much about the classics, since he did experience most of them first hand.

    Cahill sees the end of his time at Quigley approaching, and looks forward to the next stage. He will miss Quigley, he says, but agrees that it is time to leave. What he will most miss is the people he has met at Quigley, the students and teachers equally. He will miss the times Quigley lets students get to know each other better with retreats, senior focus, and Quigley events. He says it will be really tough to know that everyone will be headed in a different direction in the fall of 2006.

    After Quigley, Jimmy has to decide where he wants to go to college. His top choices are Catholic University at DC, St. Louis University, Marquette University, and Georgetown University. He admits that he loves baseball, but sees no monetary future for himself in baseball, unless of course, “the Cubs need a new right fielder. That position seems to always be open,” he jokes. He considers himself a “political junky,” and hopes that he can be involved in politics in his future as a Democrat. He admits that today’s political figures need to change to better benefit the people, and wants to help that happen.

    Finally, Jimmy has lots of advice for Quigley newcomers. He strongly encourages everybody do eat at Mike’s, on the corner of State and Pearson. He loves their food quality, nice pool table, and of course, cheap prices. He encourages everybody to keep Mike’s alive, and not let it be sold for condos, as many rumors have been saying. Jimmy also encourages everybody to work hard, and not do anything stupid. Quigley is a great place with great people, and you only get to study there for four years. Take advantage of it, and don’t cut it shorter by doing anything stupid. Finally, his last piece of advice is, “Get involved. I can’t stress that enough. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen and  heard people who didn’t really get involved until their senior year and then they do, and then they’re really sorry that they weren’t involved their first three years.”

If anybody knows about getting involved, it’s Jimmy Cahill.