Let me be crystal clear here, I truly believe that Fayetteville, North
Carolina, is a pretty unique and special city. While it may be true
that Fayetteville doesn’t have the towering skyscrapers of New York
City or the attractive southern charm of a place like Charleston,
there are special qualities to Fayetteville that are hard to grasp
until you experience them. And while it is also extremely valid that
Fayetteville has a ridiculously high crime, drug, and poverty rate, I
believe in the efforts that the city is making towards a better future
and choose to embrace the city’s damaged pebbles ratter then shun
them. As someone who has spent their entire life living in a single
location, until recently I had never been fortunate enough to travel
to different parts of North Carolina other than the Piedmont and
Coastal regions. However, thanks to a good friend that I have grown
close to during my time in college. everything for me changed this
summer when I had the opportunity to visit him in the western town of
Boone. I might as well have been visiting another planet.
A small college town located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western
North Carolina, Boone is surrounded by absolutely breathing taking
views and has a charming personality that could win over even the most
stubborn of zealots. Given the beautiful location that the town
resides in and the lack of urban expansion, nature is everything in
Boone is a way of life that consumes every individual. Although the
weather in Boone can vary from perfect and balmy in the summer to a
special kind of cold that will make your insides freeze in the winter,
the impact of nature on the daily life of those within the Watauga
(the county for which Boone resides) community does not waver. The
population of the town doubles when the local college of Appalachian
State is in session, and for some, this connection to the university
serves as the only possible gateway into a world and culture that
truly has a brand of its own.
For someone who has never
seen a mountain before, the initial drive up to Boone was eye-opening
to say the least. As my ears were popping at a sporadic rate due to
the rapid increase in elevation, I remember being overwhelmed with the
raw beauty of the scenes around me as I soaked in how special each
mountaintop looked as they reached out into the golden sky. Being able
to look down at all of creation below from an elevated platform of
serenity seems like the type of situations to only happen in movies,
but experiencing it personally was a moment that I will cherish
forever. However, what struck me most was the attitudes of the local
people. Everyone was incredibly kind during my visit and seemed to
have significantly different priorities than what I was accustomed to.
Rather than focus on the stress and uncertainties of life, the focus
of the local people seemed to be on enjoying the special moments that
we have been given today. With life on the other side of the state,
beauty seems to exist not only with nature but also in the soul of the
communities.