It’s the time of year where you’re bound to hear some long-time residents proclaim, “I just love Chapel Hill when the students are out of town!”

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that our family enjoys dining on Franklin Street when there’s plenty of parking and no waiting for a table thanks to the students’ semester break. However, have you ever considered that if there weren’t any students here the rest of the year, all those restaurants you love, whether it’s the venerable breakfast joint or one of the many wonderful ethnic restaurants we are so fortunate to have, wouldn’t be here in the first place? Neither would Memorial Hall, where you can hear a world class concert performance, or PlayMakers Theater, or the Ackland Art Museum.

You wouldn’t have a hospital performing cutting-edge medical innovations if there weren’t any med students to teach.

There’d be no games at Kenan Stadium or the Dean Dome without students.

In fact, Chapel Hill – and everything we love about it – simply would not exist if it weren’t for the students who come here each year to learn.

I understand that young adults can lead different lifestyles and keep different hours than those of us whose college years are long behind us, particularly those undergraduates who are learning to navigate living independently for the first time. Most Friday nights, I’m heading to bed about the time many students are heading out. (This difference is yet another reason we need to make sure Chapel Hill offers ample housing options well suited to the lifestyles of young adults, so students aren’t forced to subdivide single-family houses in subdivisions better suited for the middle-aged family lifestyle.)

Nevertheless, Chapel Hill has been a college town ever since Hinton James arrived in 1795, so you can’t say you didn’t know we had students when you moved here.

I’m not a Carolina alum, although I was smart enough to marry one. However, Carolina students always manage to impress me when I meet them. UNC students are not only bright (as you’d expect), they’re passionate, optimistic and eager to make a difference in the world and in their communities, whether back in their home towns or right here in Chapel Hill. As doctors and journalists, social workers and elected officials, business leaders and scientists, today’s UNC undergraduate and graduate students will go on to solve problems you and I long ago decided were impossible to fix.

The can-do attitude I see in so many UNC students gives me hope for tomorrow.

Best of all, as Chapel Hillians, you and I have the opportunity to meet these future leaders today, right here in Chapel Hill, and tell the world we knew them back when they were students.

By all means, go ahead and enjoy your favorite restaurants with no waiting while the students are out of town. Once semester break is over, however, let’s welcome back the students by proclaiming, “I just love Chapel Hill when the students are back in town.”