- As a single mother and professor, I struggled financially, so I moved into rented housing on campus.
- My two daughters grew up on the college campus where I worked, and students became leaders.
- This house was supposed to be temporary, but even after all these years, I still love it.
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Living on a 1,000-acre college campus in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, my children had the freedom to walk past herds of cows to the bus stop, eat in the cafeteria, and walk along the Swannanoa River with their friends. did. The only place they were not allowed to go was inside the dormitory.
As a single parent, I raised my two daughters, now 24 and 18, in a rented house on a small campus with views of white barns and sloping mountains.
More than 20 years ago, I made this decision out of financial and logistical necessity. Borrowing rent from the university where I taught environmental education was the only way he could survive on one paycheck with an available babysitter. However, I could not have predicted the unintended consequences of calling college home.
We wanted an affordable place to rent, and the caring characters added to our family’s story.
As a single mother with a professor’s income, money was tight, so this small house on campus was a lifesaver. I saw it as a temporary solution to my economic problems, but my children grew up in this southern land of fields, farms, and forests, where they were known as campus kids.
One time, my neighbor Tom told me that my daughter Maya needed to stay away from the road when waiting for the bus. A practical gardener, he watched my children walk through his garden to the bus stop every morning. That night, I said to my middle school students, evoking the power of this unique community.
The eclectic characters in our lives include iconic retiree Rodney Lytle, who helped Maya with a history project about Alma Shippey, the first black student admitted to the university; Dave is a painter who oversees the maintenance of the rental. And even Talula the donkey, who followed the girls as they walked to the bus stop.
We all looked out for each other, took care of our daughters, and became a support system that I would not have had without calling college my home.
The students also became my daughters’ mentors.
When one of my children got sick, I dashed to the cafeteria to find a trusted student who would pay to watch over my young child while she slept at home and I taught in the classroom. Ta.
Warren Wilson College is one of the few colleges in the country where students work part-time, growing food in the garden, conducting research in the genetics lab, and supervising exhibits in the art department. That meant my daughters could watch their babysitter drive a tractor in the fields or fix caulking in a small bathroom.
“Everything we can’t do, the students solve,” one of my daughters once said jokingly. The hard-working students set an example for them.
During the pandemic, when I felt stuck at home due to virtual school, I enlisted the help of a soccer player in college named Sierra to work out with my youngest daughter, Annie. The two developed a deep friendship while walking through the vast paths on campus. Their bond was so important that Sierra wrote about my daughter in her senior thesis.
This could be my forever home
“You’re too attached to this view,” a friend told me years ago and encouraged me to buy a house when prices were more affordable. Another friend said she couldn’t imagine living with a view of my dorm from her kitchen window.
But what I couldn’t explain was my attachment to this university, its students, and its support system. I feel like I have found my forever home surrounded by young people who want to make a difference.
What I know for sure is that my children grew into young adults in this valley. I’ve been teaching there for more years than most of my students have been alive.
I may have seen our tiny home as a stepping stone to something bigger, but the campus is a firmer landing than any other home I’ve found on this warming planet. I am.
This is the place my children know and this is home.