Students at Boothbay Region High School got to know several facets of U.S. Sen. Angus King, I - Maine, on Thursday, Nov. 3. One student asked what famous person King would like to be. He replied, “A combination of Abraham Lincoln and Mick Jagger.”

Another student asked if the senator was related to Stephen King. “No. I keep hoping he’ll adopt me,” King said. When asked what he thought of today’s music, King drew oohs and aahs from fans of the Broadway musical, “Hamilton.”

“After seeing the show, my eyes were opened to hip hop and rap. I also met Lin-Manual Miranda,” the show’s composer, he said.

King spoke to a packed BRHS gymnasium for about 45 minutes, mostly on serious topics, such as a need for more civil discourse. “I don’t know who is going to win this Presidential election,” King said. “But no matter who does, fifty percent of the country will be mad. The anger and division is something I’ve never seen before. It’s not healthy and it isn’t going to help us solve our problems. If I could change anything about this country, I would soften the tone of the debates.”

Regarding his presidential choice, King recalled that 10 months ago, as part of his responsibilities as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he flew on the “Doomsday” plane. “The National Airborne Operation Center is its formal name,” King said. “Its purpose is to carry senior military staff away from attacks on the ground so they can conduct military operations from the air.”

While he was in the air, it struck him that one person, the President of the United States, makes the ultimate decision regarding the fate of the world. “I wanted someone calm to make that choice,” King said. He also recalled a conversation with Michael Morrell, who served as Acting Director of the CIA from July to September 2011. Morrell told King he had worked with Hillary Clinton in the situation room and that he found her, King said, “thoughtful, inquisitive, willing to change her mind, and detail-oriented. That’s someone I would want in that position.” King said. He also declined to let students know what his voting choices would be. “I ain’t going to tell you how I’m voting,” he joked.

King offered two pieces of advice to students thinking about entering the political arena: Don’t hurry, and guard your reputation. “My first run for public office was when I was 50,” he said. “If politics is making the rules by which we all live, it makes sense to play the game before you start making the rules. Be engaged. Be involved. Build your reputation. You want to be someone who’s honest and reliable, who has a positive attitude and will work hard.”

Also, King advised students not to live to regret the things they didn’t do. That advice helped him decide to run for senator after the unexpected resignation of U.S. Olympia Snow, R - Maine, in 2012. King, who served Maine as governor for eight years, had no intention of returning to politics. But when Snowe resigned unexpectedly, he decided to do it, because he wanted to make a difference for Maine and the rest of the country.

One student asked him what he thought his biggest achievement as a senator has been up to now. “The passage of a law to keep student loan rates low,” he said without hesitation. “An existing law threatened to double interest rates from 3.5 to 6.5 percent. Democrats had a plan to fix it, but it failed to pass. The Republicans’ plan also failed. So I reached across party lines, we worked out a compromise, the plan passed, the President signed it, and it saved billions of dollars. It took reaching out to both sides to cooperate, which is what I try to do.”

King rounded out his talk by encouraging students to believe in their capabilities. “The only limits are the ones you set yourself. Winston Churchill said, ‘Success is just going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.’ You can do anything.”