Author Archives: Elijah Jones

A Hard Vermont Life

By Eli Jones

It’s a hard life up here in Vermont. Sometimes I just don’t quite know how I manage to stay sane in the rugged wilderness that is Middlebury College.  Case-in-point, last week after a long day of slaving away at my desk in the beautiful air-conditioned admissions office, I had to walk all the way to my dorm room on the fifth floor of Starr hall and there wasn’t even an elevator. Once I got up to my room, I briefly sat down on my bed next to a beautiful, nearly two-hundred year old brick wall and looked out my window which boasts beautiful panoramic views of the green mountains. Next I headed to dinner with friends in the dining hall, but to get there I had to walk up a hill. An entire hill. What an inconvenience. To make matters even worse, I had to eat quickly so that the other admissions interns and I could go to our boss’s house on Lake Dunmore for an evening boat ride on the lake. It was quite a journey to get there, an entire fifteen minutes of driving down mountain roads with the windows rolled down and music blaring. A hardship if there ever was one. Once we got there we cruised around the lake shortly before sunset. After we finished our little sunset cruise, I went out to the middle of the lake on a paddle board. If you have never had the chance to get on a paddle board, let me tell you that it may be the second most relaxing activity on planet earth. The most relaxing activity on planet earth – sitting on a paddle board in the middle of a lake watching the sun set behind a mountain, and yes, you guessed it, I did it. No day is typical up here in the untamed mountains of Vermont, but somehow I find it in me to continue living this extremely rugged lifestyle. I know, I know, I probably do deserve my own survival show on the discovery channel. Get at me Bear Grylls.

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