Following Thoreau, a Juniata College senior is living in a hut in the woods
Determined not to simply phone in his capstone research project on minimalist life, the Juniata College senior this fall is forgoing the warmth of a campus residence for an unheated hut he built deep in the woods of a nearby nature reserve. It is a structure fashioned from fallen pine trees that leaves him without electricity or plumbing — not to mention student necessities like YouTube.
The 9-foot-tall, 17-by-17-foot structure is where Mr. Miller, 21, of Meadville intends to live and sleep this winter and spring so he can nail down the final credits of a degree in literary and philosophical studies.
Make no mistake, it would be easier to devour a reading list including works by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and a Buddhist text titled “The Dhammapada” while ensconced with friends in the campus library stacks, rather than bundled alone at night in a sleeping bag. But Mr. Miller said he hopes to use his solitary experiences to better understand those authors’ works.
He also wants to demonstrate a larger point: that one can be as happy, if not more so, without material excess.