We Reap What We Sow
This article is featured in the 2022 Homecoming special issue.
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This article is featured in the 2022 Homecoming special issue.
Coming to Dartmouth is scary for a variety of reasons. There are the challenging classes, frigid winters and unfamiliar people, but there’s also the uncertainty of living with a complete stranger in incredibly close proximity. Transitioning from the luxury of having your own room, or sharing one with a sibling, to the unfamiliarity of sharing a small living space with a stranger or two is daunting. Dartmouth’s random assignment process for roommates certainly doesn’t ease any of these concerns.
We’re on the downward slope of the term and of the year: Can you feel it? The rollercoaster of fall term’s energy inches up the track little by little. The markers we use to measure the term start to pile up behind us — but we’re still full of potential energy. Around midterms and peak foliage, we pick our heads up and take in the view at the top for just a moment. But before we’re ready, we’re released from our place on top of the world and we’re hurtling into the rest of the year.
New to campus and eager to learn about all that they may encounter at Dartmouth, many ’26s like myself often find themselves pondering the mystery that is the process of pledging a fraternity. “What could they possibly do to me? How far will they go?” we wonder. To our dismay, however, the hazing that has been fabled to accompany the pledging process, like the recipe for original Coca Cola, is a carefully guarded secret.
Freshman fall. When we enter college, we bring with us our expectations, worries and high-school selves — who have been told that they are moving into the “best four years” of our lives.
We all know it. We all love it. We all wish that our favorite back-of-Baker almost-Starbucks would stay open until the midnight hour DDS promises it will. There’s something about Novack — the nighttime oasis, the constant chatting, run-into-your-freshman-year-fling atmosphere that we all collectively can’t stay away from, no matter how long the line is. This week five, I decided to take a moment each day to soak up the songs, the energy and the overall vibes of Novack Cafe during 22F.
It’s no secret that Hanover is an odd duck compared to the Upper Valley at large. All it takes is a ten-minute drive in any direction to notice some differences between the sprawling mansions on Occom Pond and the isolated strip malls of surrounding towns.
When people think of Dartmouth, its picturesque location and Ivy League status might come to mind, but oftentimes, the first question posed is, “Isn’t that a party school?”
Many students come to college ready to reinvent themselves. Whether it’s new interests, new style or a completely new personality, it’s easy to see this chapter of our lives as a chance for a complete rebrand.
“Be Extraordinary Here,” demands the homepage of the Dartmouth website. These words sit in the bottom left corner of the page, over a reel of students partaking in various campus activities and occupying all sorts of academic spaces. From working in labs to sketching portraits in BVAC or playing classical instruments in Faulkner recital hall, Dartmouth students do it all.
From where to eat to where to party, Dartmouth students have lots of choices to make. When you throw something away, three choices emerge: trash, recycle or compost. Although this is usually a split-second decision, the reliability of recycling on campus is hotly debated. Where do Collis smoothies go when we’re done with them? Does Dartmouth even recycle?
As I walk by Dartmouth’s beloved Green, it is not just the early October foliage that is verdant with color, but the people. Somehow, they are enough to bring the brittle fall leaves to life.
On my First-Year Hiking Trip this fall, my group was happily surprised by the visit of Bernie Waugh ’74. Waugh has been playing fiddle for lucky First-Year Trip students for forty years, starting 10 years after he graduated. He came to our cabin and asked us if we would like it if he played the fiddle and guitar for us, even providing us with “Bernie Waugh Songbooks” so we could sing along as we listened to him play or dance the Salty Dog Rag. He is a representation of what the Dartmouth community is like at its best: fun, tight-knit and long-lasting. After decades of proximity to and perspective on the Dartmouth community, Bernie had a lot to say on what the College means to him today.
Growing up in New Zealand, “college” was something that happened on TV. College was where the protagonist went after solving mysteries in a small Indiana town or before getting hired by Monsters Inc. Students cavorted in Hellenic mystery cults, pretended to enjoy playing sports and got into fights with rival a capella groups. Coming to Dartmouth was a dramatic change for those of us who are from a different part of the world.
Private prep schools seem to be the key to success when it comes to getting into an elite college like Dartmouth. After all, 34% of Dartmouth’s Class of 2025 went to “Independent Schools” while only 14% of U.S. high schoolers attend such institutions. What about private school applicants makes them so desirable to Ivy+ colleges and universities? Is it that these students are smarter, more athletic or more interesting? No. It’s the delicious scent of money wafting from these candidates that keep elite colleges feeding from a handful of high-level prep schools.
Somehow it’s week five already, and for the most part, it’s kind of nice. It feels like we’re finally in the swing of things, finally getting a chance to stop, take a breath and settle into the term. As we pass the halfway mark, though, there’s also a hint of bittersweetness in the crisp fall air. The last lasts are beginning, and every leaf that falls is a sign of time’s ceaseless march forward.
I wouldn’t rush if I went to a different school. I’m not ranking sororities off social clout. I’ll be happy wherever I end up. I’m not giving power to a system built on making girls feel bad about themselves. These are some of the many lies, or half-truths, I coaxed myself into believing during the rush process.
Given the size of our community and the College’s centuries of history, Dartmouth culture is rife with expectations for “traditional” rites of passage. There are different rules for every term: Sophomore summer is notoriously a two-course term for many, while winter term is for hunkering down because the opportunity cost of staying inside during daylight hours isn’t too high.
This weekend, as the leaves started to shift into brilliant reds and oranges, thousands of parents and loved ones descended on Hanover to reunite with family members from the Classes of 2023 and 2026. We connected with a few of the visiting parents to gauge the important — and sometimes invisible — role parents play in our college community.
At the start of the term, the trees of Hanover kept the coming season a secret. Standing tall, green and proud well into September, only the dip in temperature hinted at what this autumn had in store. Now it’s the first week of October and everything looks different. Orange, red and yellow leaves wink at us as we make our way across the Green — the same leaves that were here all year, now demanding our attention.