Hi, all!

My name is Maddyson Wilson and I’m currently a junior here at Appalachian State. I was born in West Palm Beach, Florida to a family of German immigrants who quickly instilled in me a love of two things: history and music. After a series of hurricanes destroyed our home in 2005, we (my mother, father, Oma and Opa, and I) moved to Conover, North Carolina where we currently reside. I spent most of my childhood in the kitchen with my Opa, who is my grandfather, learning to master the art of making Rouladen, Hühnerfrikassee or Schnitzel. My Opa was the one who instilled in me a love of history. He made sure that I was proud to be German, and knew all about the culture, the food, the music, and the art, but he also made sure that I knew the dark history of our home country. Opa told me stories of growing up amidst the Holocaust, and watching his friends and neighbors and eventually his own father, become casualties of the war. Hearing those stories at such a young age shaped me as a person and gave me the desire to know more about the story of the human race, and more importantly, the why behind why we do what we do.

Outside of school, I am a barista. I’ve been working at Starbucks since my junior year of high school and have a love-hate relationship with the company itself, but a love for the coffee industry in general. In addition to that, I write books! I currently work with Zenith Publishing and have Don’t Blame The Reckless (which is a Dystopian sci-fi) out, in addition to two other contracts with Zenith for works I can’t talk about yet! I also LOVE music, which is something that I can thank my Opa and his love of music and singing for, though I didn’t exactly inherit his amazing singing voice. I love making playlists for people and finding new music that I may not have ever thought to take a listen to–no genre is off-limits for me. Though, personally, my heart will always belong to rock and metal. I’ve seen the band Slipknot a total of seven times! Some of my favorite bands are Alice In Chains, The Story So Far, and Mudvayne.

I did two semesters at The King’s College in New York City before deciding to transfer to App State. While I loved the city and everything that it taught me, the price tag that came along with it just was too much. I chose App State because of the relative closeness to my family, the school’s focus on education and how many influential teachers that I had that attended App State. Boone’s beautiful scenery was also something that swayed me. I love being outdoors and hiking with my dog, Molly.