Before coming to Quinnipiac, I didn't hear much about what to expect from the university, other than that most of the students were "preppy" and that people thought it was a "party school". Well, the first part is mostly true, and the second part can be interpreted in different ways. Coming to Quinnipiac I realized that most of the students were from Connecticut, Long Island, or New Jersey. There's nothing particularly wrong with this, other than Quinnipiac's misleading goal of "diversity". Don't get me wrong, I sometimes like being an "outsider" and having it be unique that I'm not from one of the usual states of other students. Although, Vermont's not as far out there as people think.

After Thanksgiving break, one of my friends asked me how long my flight was to get back to school. I laughed and answered that it was a three-hour drive. If I meet a kid who has been to Vermont before, 95% of the time they have gone to ski or snowboard and I have to explain where I live in reference to Stratton or Killington, and then feel embarrassed that I'm not good at either of the two sports.

When people find out that I'm from Vermont they assume a few things; I ski or snowboard, I'm extremely liberal and support Bernie Sanders, and I smoke weed. I mean, we already know I can't ski or snowboard. When I tell my friends about my High School experience a lot of them just say they wouldn't expect anything else. My friend Matt and I went on a hike and I was telling him about my semester-long experience at "Mountain Campus" where we hiked to school on a snowy trail, learned about sustainability, the environment, and went on camping trips, and also that I was on rock climbing team in middle school. His response was "Wow I always thought Vermont High School would be just like mine but I didn't realize my stereotypes were so true."

They aren't actually so true. Going to the High School that I graduated from gave me tremendous opportunities and taught me a lot of things. I'm really grateful to have had the experiences that I did and I think everyone should learn the things that my other classmates and I were taught about the world and environment with an open mind. Other than those things, Vermont high school is basically the same as every other high school except maybe a bit smaller and with half days every Friday so kids can go to the mountain.

When I first moved to Vermont from Massachusetts I was ignorant and young and wanted to live in a city again. I'm happy that I was able to grow out of that stage and learned to appreciate my beautiful state that I call home and I'm proud that growing up there made me the person I am today. As Dave, my dingy driver in Key West said this summer, "Vermont is my hero state."