Take a Deep Breath

“When I step onto this campus, it feels like I can finally take deep breaths.” “When I step onto this campus, it feels like coming home.” “When I step onto campus, I feel a sense of peace wash over me.”

These are words I hear at least once during every class we hold at Wizard Academy. This week, as we wrap up Magical Worlds, the thought that lingers with me is, “Why?”

What is it about this place that makes people feel as though they’ve escaped from the real world for a brief moment of respite and inspiration?

I believe the land itself is part of the answer.

Wizard Academy sits on ancient holy ground. The original humans to walk these paths recognized it as special, a place set apart from war and conflict, from ordinary villages or encampments. They sensed something here that, even in our more “modern” age, remains true.

There are elements of this earth that carry knowledge we are either too old or too young to fully understand.

We attempt to capture this in terms like “intuition,” “feelings,” or “feng shui,” but you might as well call it “magic.” We can touch fragments of that knowledge, but we can never fully grasp it.

Yet there is a deep truth in the resonance that rolls through our bones. It’s the origin of all the mythology that surrounds elements and the physical earth. We are all part of a song—not just one, but a myriad of songs woven together like harmonies in an orchestra.

And this land vibrates with those songs. I recognized it the moment I first set foot here, my soul resonating like a tuning fork as I walked the trails to the Wizard’s Tower. That’s why I’m still here. In the eleven years I’ve served the students on this campus, the feeling hasn’t diminished. No matter my mood, the conflicts in my life, or the burdens I carry, when I walk the foothills of Wizard Academy, something in my bones says, “It’s going to be okay. You’re part of something greater.”

That’s what makes this such a remarkable place to learn and teach. At Wizard Academy, it’s easy to find deeper meanings and answer life’s biggest questions. They are threaded through these hills like veins of gold.

If you’ve ever felt the same as you made your way to Engelbrecht House or climbed the hill to the Tower for class, you’re not alone.

We all feel it.

It’s why we keep coming home.

Daniel Whittington - Chancellor