Whenever someone asks me what’s so special about App State, I always give a knowing smile, a small shrug, and say “it’s just something special, isn’t it?” In reality, I think the magic of App State is pretty obvious; it’s the connections with the people and the place. The people you meet here are, for the most part, temporary beings in your life. Roommates will come and go. Romantic connections will pass by. Even your friends will eventually move away, finding a new place to call home. Yet, even when you’re not physically together, there is a piece of all of these people in you. They’re in your memories, maybe in a piece of jewelry they gave you or in a picture on the wall. It’s similar to the local flora and fauna. The weather is sometimes terrible, but it’s temporary. The 14 inches of snow will melt. The leaves on the parkway will turn red, brown, yellow and orange. They’ll fall off the tree and decompose into the ground. They still live on though, in memory. 

Do you want to know something else about being in Boone? There’s always a feeling of “I’ll be back.” Like the romantic connections that pass us by or the annoying roommates we had for a year. It comes back to us, in one way or another. The leaves will come back to us in the spring. Our friends will send us a text. So there’s no need to feel bitter-sweet. It’ll all be alright. 

And, as famous preservationist John Muir said all those years ago, “the mountains are calling, and I must go.” That’s why we came to App State, we all felt that pull when we started, and now we leave. Some of us just for the summer, some of us for a long time and some of us will ignore the call and never come again. 

Yet, the mountains and memories will be there if we need them.