Adventures of Appalachia: come as strangers, leave as friends

This past year, I committed to spending money on experiences and less on material items. This philosophy has taken me to Chicago, Traverse City and all around Michigan’s upper peninsula; alone, with strangers and friends.

Going into my senior year at MSU, I decided to enroll Anita Skeen’s Appalachian Literature course. During the first couple of weeks of class, we discussed the trials and triumphs of a seemingly distant land of West Virginia -- the only state completely in the Appalachian Mountains. A state swallowed by coal dust, poverty and “overrun by hillbillies.”

The Residential College in the Arts and Humanities, or RCAH, has endless study abroad and away opportunities, but I’ve always been drawn to the Appalachian Immersion Weekend to West Virginia, even before Anita’s class.

I had never visited the Appalachian region so I was unsure of what to expect.

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