APW: Returning to School

Why did I Resume My Education at Warren Wilson?

The fact that I have difficulty initially trying to answer this question draws me to a state of skepticism. I am not distracted into thinking of where else I could be, but while flipping through the pages of my mind, I stop to consider if this was the right decision to return back to school? 

I write this after completing my first day of classes for Fall Semester 2014.  To elaborate further, it is my first day in a classroom setting since my study abroad semester in Fall 2008 at the U. Melbourne in Australia, though technically there it was Spring.  I had then made the decision, after going on a hike in Tasmania during finals week in November 2008, to seek an alternative lifestyle to traditional education, and pursue a path where I would work the land and travel and learn from the world as my classroom without walls.

I had not the intention to return, but I could not predict any of the events that followed after I broke away from the well paved trail. Flash forward to orientation, where I quickly learned that I was not alone in my prolonged absence from school.  Each of us, on our multifarious paths, discovered something special in WWC.  Something that attracted us towards it like a faint and intriguing light, an interesting scent and an unusually rhythmic sound away from the main event.  We are here, to begin or restart a stage in our lives. 

Even a short semester away from school, an internship or work-study over the summer, has the strong ability to lend some perspective on the world at large, and reflect on this decision to choose to return to Warren Wilson College.  Which, after a week of being here, I have only scratched the surface of understanding this campus functioning as a socio-economic ecosystem with intense microclimates.  I have enjoyed all walks to and fro classes and down to the river, forest and the pasture lands, nestled in Blue Ridge Mountains of Swannanoa, Western North Carolina.

After some Day 1 panicking relating to words and concepts like syllabus, lecture, lab, buying or renting books, assignments due, quizzes, etc. I paused, breathed, and recognized more manifestly that this is what I had signed up for.  I expected such moments to arise, regained composure and brought my attention back to the professor.  After the exploding balloons and conductive pickle in General Chemistry, and seeing the setting sun filter light through the Tulip Poplar across from the bridge to create an artsy and reflective aesthetic, I began to reflect more clearly on why I arrived here.

So why did I come back… here?  I returned for the interdisciplinary integration of the Triad.   For the challenge of the nearly-forgotten academia, for the stimulation of the culture and the forced discipline of the classes.  For the extraordinary biodiversity of this region and the breathtaking views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  To return to a place in EST (Eastern Standard Time) where I could more actively engage with the culture and not just the subculture.  To keep my mind and my body physically committed to goals that can only be achieved with persistence.  To become more aptly equipped  to contribute to a more consciously socio-ecologically designed future.

After 6 years of working, traveling and developing roots and relationships in places I hope to return to one day, I’m back in the classroom, hoping to be empowered with knowledge that will help me engage with work on campus, and other service and learning projects.  I hope to be an asset, I hope to be helpful, I hope to find meaning in my walk between classes and to assist others on their path and to not be overly passive in asking help from all the brilliant minds and able hands around.

We’ve all got a story already told.  Some of us have experienced similar events from different perspectives and others different experiences from similar perspectives.  Now we’ve got a new story beginning together and an ever-changing world that will be awaiting us when we are ready to more actively engage with it.   

Good luck to the entire incoming Freshman, transfers, returning students and Seniors in their final years.  Try to enjoy this part of the process.  Cherish your place as a new or returning student, as you only live this part of your life’s education once.