This is a warning to students at Acadia: You will miss this place. You have no idea the value of the experiences offered at this institution. You won’t appreciate Acadia until your time here is rushing to an end, or perhaps even until you have left this school and community, and all the opportunities they provide.
Your degree will rush by seemingly as fast as a single heart beat: 0.8 seconds. One of the reasons your time here will skyrocket by is the people you meet here. You will fall in love with your peers, professors, and everyone you encounter. At Acadia, you will come to know the names of physical plant workers who greet you Saturday morning with a smile as they clean up the mess you made the Friday night before. You will get to know the names of the vast majority (if not) all of your fellow residents if you make a point of going to residence events. You will see your professors downtown, smile at them, and be greeted with a genuine “how is your weekend”? You may even walk in on a meeting between the President of the University and Athletic Director, or other campus leader – and have them stop their meeting to chat and ask you about your studies and pursuits. You will come to recognize many faces on campus, and can get to know them well enough that they brighten your day – all by simply saying hello. You will make friends through every program and opportunity you get involved with, and many of them will be ones you will wonder how you will survive without them once your time is done here.
Newsflash: you won’t want to leave! Acadia and the Wolfville communities are so unique that you feel as if a spell has been placed over you once you are here. The feeling is something that you have to see to believe. Wolfville provides gorgeous marshlands complete with brown red mud that is somehow breathtaking, a bright blue ocean, rolling hills, beautiful and plentiful farm lands, and something to make everyone feel at home. Walking down main street on a winter evening you may be welcomed by church bells singing proudly, Christmas lights guiding you through the town, and a bright neon blue “Acadia” sign proudly beamingly the name of the amazing institution that brought you here, and acting as a reminder of all the history and pride in the community.
There truly is an experience for everyone here. Whether it be mud sliding during welcome week, swallows putting on a show at the Robbie Tufts chimney stack, great eats from corner to corner, a pride crosswalk that screams “you are welcome here”, stunning walking trails filled with wild blackberries, acres of stunning gardens on and off campus, the opportunity for bonfires and camp songs filled with love and laughter that will warm you for months, wonderful arts opportunities including a showcase of musical talent and unique displays at local galleries, throughout town, and on campus, and everything imaginable within a five minute drive of town.
You will find activities you enjoy here, you will grow as a person, and you will meet people you never want to leave. I promise you that. Remember, you will always be a part of the Acadia family. I urge you to get involved in everything you can, say hello to everyone on the street, and treat everyone as a friend. If you do these things, you will learn, find happiness, and flourish into an amazing, confident, and beautiful person – Acadia and Wolfville will help you find who you truly are even if you haven’t quite found yourself yet. Treasure every second.
