The source of the noise was a member of my first-year seminar, but no more than an acquaintance.  She was sporting a bright pink bikini, a ski helmet, goggles and the furriest boots I had seen since arriving at Midd as a first-year not more than two months before.  It had already been a non-descript week night, the kind where Chinese homework, 5:00 dinner and astronomy lab all mesh together to form one long block of time capable of sufficiently making me exhausted to the point where it was not hard to want to pass out for a good week.  So yes, it was my gut and not my common sense that responded to the voice instead of tuning it out.

I soon learned that she was from Southern California, San Diego specifically.  And the raucous she was causing was because although she had gone on a couple ski trips with her parents, if she hadn’t been able to trust what others had told her then she must have been in disbelief when snow started to fall from the sky. 

What made her decide to change into her present outfit is another story.  But what made me decide to join her, well that’s a question we can talk a little about.

In a short time I found myself running around outside in my new friends company, also dressed in similar attire that one might associate more with the beach than Battell Beach.  I suppose that even for me the first snow of the year was an exciting occasion.  As a first-year I was extremely excited to try out skiing for the first time in decent conditions and I had already heard about the type of place Middlebury turns into when the white stuff first arrives.  For lack of a better (and less cheesy) description, it was magical and liberating, and perhaps a little foolish, but for all the right reasons.

And it’s because of this that three years later I found myself running through McCardell Bicentennial Hall wearing very little clothing while announcing to others who are much more hard-working than I am that the first snow of the year had indeed arrived.  It’s the fourth and last time my friend Lizz and I will partake in the tradition and despite the fact that it may seem strange, while making a fool of myself I couldn’t help but feel pretty sentimental. 

There is no doubt in my mind that I am going to have an extremely difficult time saying goodbye to this place.  And perhaps the reason why I am stressing about it now is that everyone around me is applying for jobs, talking about next year and focusing primarily on something they call the “real world.” 

While this is good and all, I can’t help but focus on the present situation and how it is often the stroke of luck (and our ability to trust our gut reaction) that leads us to do great things.  Lizz and I have been incredibly close friends since and had I not decided to be a little crazy, who knows if we would even know each other.

But that’s what I love about Middlebury and how I am going to have such a hard time leaving.  It’s the nonsensical decisions we make and the lessons we learn from them.  It’s the opportunities we have to, in a sense, live a little.  It’s the wind whipping in your face as the first flakes fall around you.

Even after the election is over, the trend towards one political consensus, at least among my friends, does not mean that we have any shortage of conversation or debate over the issues. Somewhere in the middle of schoolwork, loads of clubs and teams, students here find time to read about the different policy proposals and to keep up with post-election developments. During the election, many canvassed for the ticket that they supported. It was not uncommon to hear about students who drove to the battleground state of New Hampshire on the weekends to knock on doors and encourage people to vote for their candidate of choice. A lot of Middlebury students were active in calling undecided voters to talk about why their candidate deserved and needed that voter’s support. The College Dems weekly phone-athons in Hillcrest, and on Election Day, they made 6143 calls from Coltrane Lounge during their “All Day Phone Bank for Barack” event.  

On Tuesday night, I headed down to a packed Grille to join other students and faculty members watching the results as polls started to close. It was exciting to see the results of the election online before they were even announced on major networks that were projected onto large screens on stage. When I arrived, Professors Dickinson and Johnson, both from the Political Science Department, were discussing the merits of McCain’s decision to have Palin as his running mate. Over the course of the night, they announced the results of the presidential election in certain states as students called them out, and they explained the importance of specific Senate and House races this year. Sometimes they even asked students to stop using their laptops because they were overloading the wireless network. The professors could not get online to analyze the data and at one point the projection feed even cut out.

After the results from Ohio came in, Professor Dickinson announced that Barack Obama was our President-elect. This was long before any of the networks called the election. Virtually every student at the Grille cheered when they heard this. Later on that night and the next day, the energy was the same. Not much else seemed to matter. Many of my friends and I had midterms the following night, and needless to say, we did not get a ton of studying done that day.

As college students, I think a lot of us saw our futures tied to the outcome of this election. This is particularly true as many of us graduate in the next year. The fact that Obama is our next president makes some of my friends a little less eager to move abroad after college. For now, I think we’re focusing on how to continue being politically involved, and maybe on plans to attend the Inauguration during J-term.