Written by Sawyer Cunningham - The changing of the seasons brings with it colder and colder mornings. Madi comes to breakfast wrapped in layers of jackets to make it through her short walk from the chalet. Students emerge weary eyed from their dorms or cars and we begin our half controlled stumble through the process of designing and building this new dorm. 

    The tips of the trees begin to change from deep greens to golds and reds and the first frost of the season signals the end of summer and the shift to autumn just as the days of frantic drawing and design iteration are coming to a close. 

    After classes students retreat down various avenues of decompression, going fishing or on walks, bike rides, runs, doing yoga or curling up with some Netflix. A few of us hacky sack or go to the skatepark between the end of class and dinner. I’ve been taking in as much of the remaining daylight as I can to get in the last fly fishing of the season at the Mad River across the road from campus.

On weekends some of us take day trips to Burlington or go to the farmers market. I tend to visit my parents house in Waterbury to check up on the dogs or go back to UMass to visit friends. We are all beginning to find our groove living here in the valley and are looking forward to beginning the build.