Five Hours on I-81

Help us welcome Maddy Sault to ExperienceVT! Maddy is a senior triple majoring (yes--you read that right) in business information technology, professional and technical writing, and English creative writing. 

Today, Maddy reminisces on her first visit to Blacksburg as she preps to graduate this May.

Earlier this January, I drove the five hours from Northern Virginia to my home in Blacksburg for the very last time in my undergraduate career. I’m not going to lie, it hit me hard, and I found myself thinking of my first visit to the university as the miles that stretched in front of me grew shorter and shorter with each rotation of my old Honda’s tires.

I came to Virginia Tech with a sense of cynicism so strong it was nearly blinding. My father and I pulled into the Lane Stadium parking lot in the middle of the pouring rain exactly one week before I was supposed to commit to a school for the next four years of my life, and set out with a map and half a plan. Traffic on I-81 caused us to miss the last scheduled tour of the day, and I remember squinting out at the soggy April Drillfield from the steamy doors of War Memorial Hall and feeling the knots in my stomach tighten as I watched students rush past me to navigate the muddy, unpaved paths that spanned it.

“Are y’all touring today?”

We turned quickly to see two people standing expectantly behind us, hands clutching umbrellas and gym bags, and I nodded mutely -- these were the first two people to acknowledge us separately from a college tour in the eight institutions we’d visited that week. They introduced themselves and told us they were on their way to grab food, inviting us along to eat and ask any questions we could think of.

My first experience at D2 was in the company of complete strangers, but nothing about it felt strange. The two laughed constantly, offering anecdotes about their years at the university and introducing my father and me to anyone they knew who passed our table. We were offered tours of classrooms, residence halls, and more meal swipes than we could count from everyone we met, and I was absolutely blown away by the enthusiasm and love each displayed for the home they’d forged in the middle of Southwest Virginia. The people who helped me that day weren’t reading from a script or speaking from some hidden agenda, they genuinely wanted to share all they had come to love in their time as students. It took five hours for me to drive to Blacksburg, and thirty minutes for me to fall in love.

I feel that I am worlds removed from the 17-year-old that looked out at the Drillfield with such trepidation nearly four years ago. Since that afternoon, I’ve changed my major five times, realized and explored my passion for service, and challenged myself in more ways than I can count. I’ve mourned alongside my fellow Hokies at the April 16th memorial and laughed my way through five of the 13 snow days Virginia Tech has had in its history as an institution. I’ve witnessed hundreds of Blacksburg sunsets, both alone and with those I love, and watched friendships grow from seeds of conversation on Math Empo buses.

My little brother submitted his application to Virginia Tech on New Year’s Day, and I felt my heart glow as he crossed his fingers for a school that has become such an integral part of the person I am today -- a school that existed unknown to my family prior to my April visit in 2013. The paths on the Drillfield may be paved now, and there may be new buildings and traffic patterns popping up with each day that passes, but I know that the love I witnessed so intensely on my first visit here hasn’t changed. Virginia Tech is alive in its students and their willingness to reach out to those in need. It breathes through Ut Prosim, and resides in the mind and heart of each person who considers himself a Hokie. I am confident that there are very few roads in this world that will hold as much significance to me as I-81, but I know that the meaning behind my five-hour drives will stick with me far beyond the day I graduate.