This is the first summer since I’ve been in college that I won’t be moving back home for the summer. Like many of my peers, I’m taking a summer class (sob) and I will be unable to spend the warm season in the town that I love with my family and friends beside me. Don’t get me wrong, I love my new home—the city life is a lot more stimulating than the mountain life—things stay open past 10 p.m., no one judges me for getting Taco Bell at 12:30 at night, and I’m free to do whatever I want whenever I want- this mostly means staying up watching "Game of Thrones" until 3 a.m., stuDYING for the LSAT, and working five days a week, but whatever. The city definitely has its upsides. But, at the end of the day, I can hear Mountain Mama calling me, and it hurts me that I can’t answer her.

Since I was 16-years-old, I have worked in the rafting industry doing all sorts of odd jobs from hosting at Chetty’s Pub, Secret Sandwich Society and Smokey’s on the Gorge to working the photo booth for Whitewater Photography, where I sold pictures of rafters to rafters for rafters. I even worked for a short time in a clothing retail store that sold rafting couture to tourists that felt bold enough to brave the New and Gauley Rivers’ class IV+ rapids. But not this summer.

No, this summer, instead of living it up in the rolling hills of Southern West Virginia, hiking the Long Point and Endless Wall trails, rafting the waters I grew up in, boogying at Rendezvous Lodge, and eating the fine cuisine that you can only find in a small foodie town, I will be doing math- two hours a day, every day. Believe me, I am not taking the opportunity of a summer class for granted- many students face challenges with financial aid that prevent them from taking summer classes, either forcing their semesters to increase in hours, or making it nearly impossible to finish their degrees in four years. I am very lucky. But the more I think about this summer without Fayetteville, I grow more and more jealous of my friends and classmates that get to enjoy the adventurous town I was raised in.

So, I am taking steps to ease my pain and include the laid-back mountain lifestyle into my new bustling city life. For example, I am working at the Morgantown Pies and Pints, a staple of Fayetteville. I am using the money I make there to save up for a SUP board to take on Cheat Lake (not quite the same as boarding Summersville Lake, but I’ll take what I can get). On top of these things, I am obviously going to make every effort to visit Fayetteville when I get the chance; I already have my first rafting trip planned out with some Morgantown friends.

I will end this with a shout-out to the people that get to stay in Fayetteville during the summer months: don’t take it for granted! Fayetteville is a special place full of awesome people, that is a very groovy combination that you don’t get to experience very often. Go out and do everything that the mountains provide for you! Go hiking up that steep passage; go rafting down the menacing rapids; get job at the rafting company that requires you to wake up at 5 a.m.; eat as much food as you can; splurge and get the two-day pass to Mountain Music Fest. Take in every moment and make some beautiful memories, because those are Fayetteville’s specialty.