University of Vermont
Forever...The University of Vermont is the college that turns Katherine and Michael’s talk of a future together into a practical, if uncertain, plan. Katherine hopes to attend it; Michael is accepted there. But the university does not become the setting for their shared life: Katherine’s college plans take another course, and the story ultimately leaves the promise of being together unresolved.
A hoped-for college choice
When Katherine and Michael discuss where they might go to college, Katherine names the University of Vermont as her hope, with Middlebury College as the alternative. The conversation takes place during a walk around a lake: Michael removes Katherine’s mitten and puts it in his pocket as they walk hand in hand. His wish that it would snow gives this exchange an intimate present tense, while their discussion of college points toward a future they do not yet know how to arrange.
The University of Vermont is not initially just one item in a list for Katherine. Although she has applied to other schools, she later tells her guidance counselor that she really wants to go to Vermont or Middlebury because she has a friend and they want to be together. The choice is therefore bound up with her relationship with Michael. The school represents a possible way to make a shared future concrete, rather than simply an academic preference described independently of him.
Admissions and competing plans
That hope meets both practical and parental resistance. Katherine’s counselor reviews her existing applications and warns that changing direction will not guarantee admission: Middlebury is difficult to get into, and the University of Vermont gives priority to its own applicants. Katherine believes she can get her parents’ permission quickly, but her mother refuses, arguing that it is unwise to change course after applying to three schools. Her father has already expressed concern that she would be happier if she were not tied to one boy, while Katherine insists that she is not unhappy and only misses Michael.
The exchange shows that the university’s significance depends on several decisions beyond Katherine’s preference. She needs her parents’ permission, and admission remains uncertain. Her mother’s question about the following year—when Katherine and Michael will be apart—pushes Katherine to seek guidance, but it does not secure approval or alter the applications already in motion. The University of Vermont thus becomes the focus of a conflict between a relationship-centered plan and the family’s concern about the consequences of shaping college choices around a boyfriend.
The outcomes make the difference between the two students’ plans explicit. Katherine is rejected by one of her other choices and accepted at Pennsylvania State University and the University of Denver; Michael is accepted at the University of Vermont but not at Middlebury College. The narrative does not say that Katherine is admitted to Vermont or that she enrolls there. The college that she had hoped might bring them together becomes Michael’s actual destination, while her own acceptances point elsewhere.
A plan for staying together
Michael’s acceptance does not end their effort to find a way to remain close. Because both the University of Vermont and Middlebury College operate on a trimester system, he plans to take the winter semester off and teach skiing in Colorado. He intends to make up the lost credits at summer school, allowing him to graduate in four years while spending every weekend with Katherine during the winter. He has already written to Vail, Aspen, and Steamboat Springs to describe his qualifications.
The plan gives the University of Vermont a specific place in their imagined routine: its academic calendar makes a winter interruption seem workable, and the proposed arrangement tries to turn distance into a schedule they can manage. It also depends on coordination between college, seasonal work, and summer study. The story records the plan and Michael’s applications for ski jobs, not whether he ultimately follows through. Its importance lies in what they are trying to preserve, rather than in a college experience the narrative never depicts.
The promise and its limits
The University of Vermont enters the story during Katherine’s senior year, as college acceptances approach and the end of school begins to feel like the end of one life and the beginning of another. Graduation makes that transition literal. A severe thunderstorm forces the ceremony indoors, where each senior is allowed only two tickets; Michael must wait at home and does not see Katherine in her cap and gown. The missed ceremony underscores that their closeness cannot make every threshold a shared one, even before their longer separation begins.
Four days after Katherine and Michael leave for Long Beach Island, Katherine and Jamie leave for camp. The story later returns to the unresolved meaning of their relationship: Katherine says she will never regret loving Michael, but thinks she may not be ready for forever. Against that ending, the University of Vermont stands for a future they tried to engineer through admissions, a flexible academic calendar, and a winter work plan. It gives their hope practical detail, but it does not guarantee permanence; the novel distinguishes wanting to build a life together from being ready to make that life last.
