I happily started my Middlebury College career in February, after taking a semester to scuba dive for Fiji's National Trust. Coming to Vermont from a tropical island, I was particularly aware of Middlebury's environment. Yes, the Champlain Valley was cold, but right away I discovered Middlebury is a haven for the active and enthusiastic. It was easy to be swept up in the warm welcome of the community.
After my first year, I joined the ranks of Middlebury students who savor the seasonal changes and the College's bucolic setting. I loved taking long bike rides with friends to see the fall foliage; I loved picking apples on the way back to campus. In the winter, students understandably boost their productivity so they can head to the slopes and the cross-country ski trails as soon and often as possible. Snow sculptures and sledding trails appear around campus all winter. When the sun is warm on the first days of spring, shorts, skirts, Frisbees, and wiffle balls appear in full force. The changing seasons, outdoor activities and beautiful views of the Green Mountains and the Adirondacks reminded me to look up and look around, and to live in the present.
Many of my most memorable experiences at Middlebury involved working with professors who are both up to date with the latest in their fields and committed to sharing their intellectual passion and wisdom with students, in and out of the classroom. Some highlights:
- reading Robert Frost poems aloud in Frost's cabin near Middlebury's Bread Loaf mountain campus;
- collecting sap samples for environmental chemistry class from maple trees and boiling it into maple syrup in the lab;
- working with non-profit and business partners in Addison County on renewable energy and efficiency projects;
- sitting in the sun at the organic garden talking with Bill McKibben and Scott Russell Sanders about writing;
- taking geology field trips to power plants and factories to understand what is really happening behind our instant-gratification culture of "on" buttons and light switches;
- eating Mediterranean food with anthropology professors and friends around a fireplace in a New England red barn;
- and waiting with an astronomy class on the roof of McCardell Bicentennial Hall for the stars to come out after a magenta and carrot-orange sunset over the Adirondacks.
Every semester, I was blown away by the myriad ways Midd students take advantage of opportunities and resources to make things happen personally, academically, and socially. I watched a friend learn to kayak and go over the Otter Creek falls. I saw many students put together stimulating symposia to bring global or local issues to our community's attention. Lots of students use the Commons network, as I did, to organize special events, social or academic or both. I hosted a Thai dinner and video and photo screening in a home rather than a lecture hall, and was able to share some of what I experienced living in Thailand.
If you like to make things happen, Middlebury is an incredible place to be. I was encouraged to have an active, healthy mind, and also grew to have a stronger body and spirit. This all leads to fulfilling relationships and serves as the foundation for a community that's always growing and improving.
Professors, students, resources, buildings, food, environment ... Middlebury is a world-class institution. Its location only enhances opportunity for growth and ingenuity. Yes, Vermont can be cold in the winter - but without the contrast, the other seasons would never be so sweet.