An August ago, I was a freshman moving into my jail cell of a dorm on south campus. I didn't know where anything was (I still probably would not be the best person to give you directions) or what my roommate would be like (spoiler alert: I love her).
This August, I am going into my second to last semester at UNC and moving into a literal cabin in the woods (I have a negative connotation of cabins because I hated going to our fixer-upper mountain cabin in middle school that lacked some of the modern luxuries of life.) Now, I am going to spend an entire semester taking environment and ecology courses, including completing a capstone project on microplastics (I am a political science major with no intention of going into an inherently STEM career).
My two Fall semesters as a UNC student could not be more different. Although both have consisted of learning to live in a new place, my adjustment to Highlands could not have been smoother. Instead of navigating UNC's 700+ acre campus, I am navigating the 24-acre campus of the bio station. (You will see that the practical implications of which are crazy.)
Instead of trudging 20 minutes out of breath from the depths of South campus, I can roll out of bed at a crisp 8:55 a.m. and still make it to my 9 o'clock class on time. Something all my friends on campus this semester would be envious of.
Going out does not look like listening to a band on a crowded frat lawn anymore. Going out looks a bit more like listening to a band playing half-70s classics and half-pop Top 40 hits and watching what I can only assume is a good chunk of the town's residents (median age: 59) throw out the occasional surprisingly youthful dance move at the town Dahlia festival.
My classroom sometimes requires a little more physical exertion than weaving through the rows to find a seat in a 300-person lecture hall five minutes after class has started. The reward is that the journey to class can be ten times more peaceful than constantly having your ears tuned to listen for the incoming threat of a scooter whizzing a little too close a little too fast.
I no longer have to wait until I'm home on breaks to see mountain views, which I missed quite a bit living in the dorms last Fall.
And the thing is, I kind of love it. I had no idea what to expect the day I moved in, but I feel good about what I found. I am enjoying spending my semester in western North Carolina. I've spent a little time in the mountains of western North Carolina, but it never feels like I've seen enough of it, and I've already seen so much while here
As someone who's not a STEM major, I also have a new appreciation for those going into the scientific field, especially researchers. 5:30 a.m. wake-ups and hours of staring at and clicking through spectrograms filled with background noise are not for the faint of heart. However, they give me a new appreciation for the researchers who do it daily in pursuit of even the most obscure knowledge. Getting to observe the cutest little things (golden mice) up close in the woods and learn more about what I'm learning is an even more ecologically fascinating region than I ever even realized is pretty cool, too.
Some things don't change, though; from the triangle to the Appalachians, I will always prefer a weekend spent sleeping outdoors over a weekend spent sleeping on a twin-sized mattress!
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