Imagine it’s 20 maybe 30 years from now, what would you miss about this place? What would you ache to go back to and relive over and over again?

Would it be Saturday afternoon football games, drinking beers with friends and families tailgating in the parking lot or perhaps wing nights at Fishtail with $2 draft beers?

Would it be interaction with professors, when they realized you had that inspirational moment and really bought in to their lesson?

In times of intensity we need to appreciate the good things we have instead of letting the negative overwhelm us.
The little box you are tightly crammed into with all of your pictures from home, favorite stuffed animals, mini fridge of six packs and a closet full of clothes you barely wear because you live in sweatpants, are all going to be things you’ll miss one day.
It doesn’t seem like much of a walk in the park now, but one day you’ll be sitting in your house watching your children make concoctions out of household ingredients and think “wow, that really looks like something I ate at Huden once.  Damn I miss those days.”
When things at work are weighing you down, you’re going to miss being able to take that nice long drive up Route 30 and watch the sunset over Lake Bomoseen.
The construction of new buildings and the marching band on Saturday mornings may be loud and obnoxious now, but I bet you’ll never sleep this good again.
We often take for granted the things we grow comfortable with, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take the time to appreciate them. They won’t always be there.
With all the recent drama surrounding the string of retail thefts from Dick’s Sporting Goods, it’s inevitable that people lose site of the good things this school, town, and community have to offer.
In the wake of tragedy we forget about the important good things in our lives; the friends we’ve made upon coming here, relationships we’ve built with professors, classes we’ve taken and things we’ve learned.
Right now it may be hard to get the mind off of the whirlwind of negativity, but in a few years when we look back at Castleton we won’t remember this; we will remember Roxie’s French fries, Sunday breakfasts at Birdseye and trips to Killington. We will remember how we met the friends standing next to us on our wedding day and the doors into our careers that Castleton opened for us.
So when you’re feeling like things are spinning out of control around you and you overhear all kinds of negative things happening with students on campus, remember that this school is known for so much more than that.
Castleton is preparing us for the future ahead, it’s been there through our weakest moments and it’s time for us to be there for it!