Reporter’s notebook
by Ethan Brodie
Ethan Brodie is a University of Vermont student who is interning at the Chronicle this summer.
As the calendar sits on the verge of turning to August, I have been reflecting on my experience living in the Northeast Kingdom this summer. Though I’ve been here just a month and a half, I have learned much about this place, its people, and rural life. I would like now to attempt to share these insights, which I hope will prove amusing and/or interesting to the people reading this who have lived here much longer than I have. For context, I grew up in the Washington, D.C., area and will be a senior at the University of Vermont (UVM) in the fall.
Growing up in the D.C. area means I became used to being surrounded by people everywhere I went. Getting anywhere required adding at least 15 minutes to the estimated travel time to account for traffic, even on weekends. Instead of trees, strip malls dotted much of the landscape. True peace and quiet was never closer than a two-hour drive. The Kingdom has proved different, to put it lightly.
I remember my first week here back in June. I couldn’t get over what I was seeing out the window as I drove around. There were forests everywhere, and when the forest ended, a farm appeared. The occasional small town tied things together. I was struck by the beauty and peaceful nature of it all. While I knew I would be living in a truly remote region, I wasn’t able to properly conceptualize the bucolic nature of the Kingdom until I arrived. It was hard to tell people about it..
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