Having “gone away” for school (even if it’s only 5 hours away in my case) makes the preservation of family and community difficult. As a college student, it is acceptable (generally speaking) to be disconnected from the family. We are learning to spread our wings and forge our own lives, which is great and maybe even why we go to college (?). However, college life can also feel very self centered: these four years are about “my education” and “my future” and “my interests”. In some ways, it feels as though there is a lack of true community in a college setting because, after all, how can community be maintained if we college students focus first and foremost on ourselves? Being students at Middlebury does not ask us to hold responsibility for much else other than ourselves (we even have people clean and cook for us). It almost feels as though we’ve regressed from the family and community responsibilities that many have grown up with, and I’m curious to know how family and community will be preserved if people are here first to further themselves.
At the same time, I think students at Midd are really incredible in a lot of ways: I’m constantly impressed by people’s abilities to dedicate themselves to their studies. I wonder in many cases what the greater goal is and why people choose to go to college, probably because I don’t know the answer for myself yet. I left home to “get an education” so that I can better serve the world, a community, my family? But what about how I can be helping my family right now? Sometimes it’s hard for me to justify this whole college thing in the short term, and I’d appreciate some tips about how to preserve community and family while still attending Middlebury College.