If you’ve looked at my Twitter account in the past over the summer, you know a few things about me. Mostly you know I watched Gilmore Girls 18 years late, but you might also have picked up that I lived on a raised patch of land lovingly referred to as a mountain which was thirty minutes from the closest Wal-Mart.
Where was I? This summer, I was the Graduate Intern for Residential Life at the University of the South, which you may know as Sewanee. Why? Because this place is different from UA in almost every measurable way. Sewanee is a small, private, fully residential, liberal arts college owned by the Episcopal Church. It sits on 13,000 acres owned by the university, a parcel of land guarded by angels and referred to as “the Domain.’ At capacity, the Residential Life office has 7 full-time employees, around 50 student staff members, and 1600 residents. This experience has been a challenging one, but I am grateful for the lessons I have learned. First and foremost, I had a good summer. If I can do that living alone in a residence hall in a small town at a job that I still haven’t quite figured out, then I can do that anywhere. I’ve read (and purchased) so many good books. I’ve run almost a hundred miles. I’ve visited several dear friends. I’ve fallen down. I’ve cried (a lot). I’ve gotten back up. Rinse and repeat. Second, my gut told me in 2012 that I belong at a big school. My gut was right. Sewanee stood out to me among peer institutions because of the role it played in my college search process. It was the dream school of a friend of mine who thought I was making a grave mistake joining the Tide. With AJ McCarron poised to bring home his third national championship, I just didn’t see the draw, but this summer, I wanted to figure it out. After two months, I see why some students fall in love with this place. While it will always hold a special place in my heart, I can’t wait to get back to my big-school comfort zone. Third, be still and listen. Listen to your body, your brain, your soul. Sometimes, this means literally getting up after you fall down, but seeking help instead of pushing through the pain. Sometimes, this means going to a church service because it is part of the culture of a place and finding comfort and restoration in the incense and stained glass. Sometimes, this means going to watch the sunset on the edge of the mountain and pushing yourself to engage with the people around you so that you can discover you’re sitting next to a former UA Journalism professor who knows one of your college roommates. This summer has been about so much more than my job. I will leave Sewanee with a much clearer picture of who I am, in addition to what I want to do and how I want to do it. I don’t know where I will be in a year, but as I mull over the possibilities of my future I can’t help but leave you with the words of Sewanee alumnus William Alexander Percy about his alma mater: "It’s a long way away, even from Chattanooga, in the middle of woods, on top of a bastion of mountains crenellated with blue coves. It is so beautiful that people who have once been there always, one way or another, come back. For such as can detect apple green in an evening sky, it is Arcadia—not the one that never used to be, but the one that many people always live in; only this one can be shared." - Cokie Thompson
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