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The Dartmouth
March 29, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Seizing Our Springtime Potential

3.8.13.mirror.spring
3.8.13.mirror.spring

Heading into spring I am cautious to start setting my expectations because, knowing me, they will most likely be a bit outlandish. For example, I am tempted to imagine campus as a picture-perfect copy of the sunny Elysium that it appears to be in admissions brochures, filled with couples sharing picnics on the Green and happy students biking into the sunset with the silhouette of Baker Tower at their backs. I envision the term flying by like a montage in a romantic comedy in which imagined spring daffodils pop up beside every sidewalk, there is always great live music and for some reason a golden retriever follows me wherever I go. See, things are already starting to get unrealistic. There's no way daffodils would ever grow in New Hampshire.

Realistically, I can expect walking around in melting snow and mud, papers and exams, good times and bad. I probably won't be able to wear shorts until May and my fictitious Russian love interest will mostly likely be stuck in St. Petersburg. These things are simply out of my control, so I will try to ignore them and instead occupy my time by constructing optimistic expectations for spring. As fun as this is, there comes a point when it is more harmful than helpful. The problem with expectations is that, in forming them, you relinquish control over and responsibility for your life. Expecting to get better grades next term is not the same as changing your study habits. Expecting to be happier when it's sunnier is not the same as doing things that make you happy. Nobody makes New Year's expectations, nor do we expect to give something up for Lent. Perhaps by changing the way we talk about the future we can begin to take control of the outcome. We might get more things done if we stopped making expectations and started making to-do lists.

I'm going to attempt to take my own advice and think about the things I will do to make 13S my best term yet. For one thing, I'm going to buy a kite. All winter I've been itching to fly one and by golly it's about time I make those dreams come true. I'm also going to stop ignoring blitzes. While I pride myself on the ability to nab 30 enthusiastic emails in five seconds flat, I often find myself complaining that there's nothing to do on campus. Maybe if I didn't exterminate emails as if they were termites, I wouldn't have this problem. Perhaps it is time for me to alter my ways.

Spring is a time for change, and as you watch caterpillars become butterflies, gray skies become blue and Uggs become flip-flops, try and take some time to think about how you can do the same. I'm not suggesting you pop out of a cocoon, unless that cocoon is your bed and you have a 9L. I'm just hoping that you consider what might exist out there for you. You might just find that by leaving your expectations behind and changing your actions, you will become a beautiful butterfly.