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The Dartmouth
March 28, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Mirror Asks: 2018 Freshman Issue Edition

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MEMORY FROM FRESHMAN YEAR?

Eliza Jane Schaeffer ‘20: I was sitting on the green when it first started to get warm in the spring (along with half of campus), and someone screamed out of their car window “people are happy!”

Peter Charambulous ‘20: Snowball fight on green.

Emma Demers ‘20: Studying abroad in Italy my freshman summer — truly an opportunity like no other to learn a language and I met some of my best friends at Dartmouth on the trip!

Jee Seob Jung ‘20: Kiddie pool outside of Wheeler during Green Key.

Hana Warmflash ‘20: PRANK WEEK.

Kylie Sibilia ‘20: Tackling my friends in the snow in the annual snowball flight.

WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE MEMORY FROM FRESHMAN YEAR?

EJS: Being just constantly confused.

PC: Feeling of loneliness during orientation.

ED: The October-November outbreak of hand-foot-mouth disease in the Choates was brutal.

JSJ: Psych 001.

HW: Getting back my first math exam.

KS: Falling down the stairs in a frat basement.

AT WHAT POINT DID DARTMOUTH FEEL LIKE HOME?

PC: Snowball fight on green.

ED: When I left after fall term for winterim and realized I was homesick for Dartmouth.

Bella Jacoby ‘20: When I came back after being abroad. Alt: When my Maps app started to call Hanover my “home” location.

JSJ: When I started becoming close with people in my dorm towards the middle of freshman fall.

KS: When I started saying, “I’m going home,” to my friends, and realized I was talking about my dorm room and not the place where I grew up.

WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU COULD TELL YOUR FRESHMAN SELF?

EJS: People may look like they have everything together, but everyone is definitely nervous about transitioning to college.

PC: Do less.

ED: Go to the 10am class. Drink more Emergen-C. Call home more. Switch to the 5[-swipe meal plan] ASAP.

JSJ: Do not take Psych 001.

HW: Skipping an on night to get up early and go outside is SO WORTH IT.

KS: Do what makes you happiest regardless of what everyone else may or may not think about that.

DO YOU HAVE ANY MAJOR REGRETS FROM YOUR TIME THUS FAR AT DARTMOUTH?

EJS: I regret joining every single club the beginning of freshman year. You will find your place, and you don’t have to try anything and everything in order to do so.

PC: Not valuing relationships enough.

ED: Not dropping a really hard class in a subject I wasn’t even interested in pursuing, not taking my swim test during Trips, not taking advantage of the “Take your professor to lunch” program until this summer.

JSJ: Not being more knowledgeable about the academic system at Dartmouth going into my freshman year.

KS: I wish I took more risks freshman year.

ANY CRINGEY/FUNNY FRESHMAN YEAR STORIES?

EJS: I’m from a warmer part of the country and am not accustomed to walking on ice. I was walking with my hands in my pockets and slipped on ice and fell directly on my face and broke my nose. I tried to pull my hands out to break my fall, but they were stuck. It was very tragic.

PC: I put my social security number on my resume.

JSJ: Spilled an entire carton of Goldfish on the first floor of my freshman dorm the second day of [orientation] week.

HW: Once I woke up early to go skiing with my UGA, only to open the door to my outer room and have 800 balloons fall in on me. My UGA and some floor mates stayed up until 6am filling our room with balloons... We didn’t go skiing.

WHEN AND HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH THE DARTMOUTH?

EJS: I started copyediting my freshman fall and then began writing for the Mirror my freshman spring. I knew that I wanted to be involved with the newspaper in some capacity because I love writing.

PC: I started writing and got hooked.

JSJ: Middle of freshman fall.

KS: I joined my freshman fall because I wanted to get involved with the writing community on campus.

WHERE HAVE YOU FOUND A COMMUNITY ON CAMPUS? HOW?

EJS: In my sorority, in The Dartmouth, and in people who share my academic interests. That definitely wasn’t immediate-- it was more of a gradual process.

PC: The D, Friends I lived with in DC, My fraternity.

ED: The Cube at night contains a truly great mix of people. You can always count on other people being there late at night while you feverishly write a paper/finish a lab. The camaraderie is so real.

JSJ: Kappa Kappa Gamma, my dorm (particularly freshman dorm, Wheeler).

KS: I’ve found a community in my best friends, mainly by just spending as much time as I can doing things like swimming in the river and just eating at foco with them. When you’re not stressing about work or trying so hard not to socialize and you’re just relaxing with people, I think that’s when you bond the most.

FAVORITE CLASS YOU’VE TAKEN? WHY IS IT YOUR FAVORITE?

EJS: My Writing 5, which was a creative nonfiction class. Before taking it, I had never thought that nonfiction writing could be creative.

PC: Tocqueville: Democracy in America.

JSJ: Race and Ethnicity in the U.S.; the discussions gave me a lot of insight and I was actually inspired to do the readings and work.

KS: ENGS12 (Design Thinking) because it changed the way I thought about people and how to empathize with them.