Midterm gloom is in the air. Everybody has 50 midterms, 20 papers, and four million pages of reading to do -- all for three supposedly measly little classes. And it's too cold to stand on the Green and talk to your friends, so instead you give them the standard, "Hi, how're ya doing" line and then proceed to your class without waiting for an answer -- you'll catch up with them in the spring when it's warmer.
Pretty depressing, huh? But instead of complaining about how rough you have it, consider for a moment what it would be like to have a "real" job in the "real" world instead.
You think you have it bad, having to get up for that 10 three times a week? Or maybe even a 9L (the kind that start at, gasp, 8:45 a.m.). Common now, what time do you think "real people" get up and go to work? And do you think their work day ends at 12:30 p.m. the way many of our academic days do?
College life is a lot better than most of us realize. It all begins at registration every term. For $10 you can by a film pass and see over twenty movies a term. In New York City, where many students choose to live after Dartmouth, a single movie ticket costs upwards of $8. Okay, I'll admit, the DFS film pass usually serves up a strange cinematic mix, but we're talking 50 cents a movie if your work load allows you to attend them all (yeah, right).
At Dartmouth, we are tempted by an array of dining options. There's Home Plate for the healthy, Collis for the crunchy, and even Full Fare for the football players -- or those who just want to look like football players. In the real world though, people must grocery shop, prepare meals, and even do their own dishes. In other words, after Dartmouth you won't find those handy conveyor belts just to drop your tray on.
Also, there is a tempting array of social opportunities to choose from at Dartmouth -- and I'm not only thinking of the various ways you can combine two or three different Greek letters. There are many entertainment options right in front of us and most of them are free. If you'd just put aside your term paper, lab report, and thesis proposal and get out, you'd see that Dartmouth is just a regular dance party. Do you think that after Dartmouth you'll find as good a time as at Collis' karaoke night or Food Court's raging Super Bowl party?
Kidding aside, one of the best things about Dartmouth is that you don't have to report to anyone if you don't feel like it. In high school, some of us had to get a "pass" to go to the bathroom, but here you can do whatever you want. You could spend your whole day in the bathroom if you felt like it -- although you'd be missing some good karaoke.
I am going to tell you the best thing of all about Dartmouth -- the thing that separates college life from life in the working world, the thing you don't want to give up -- the nap.
Until you got to college you thought naps were only for small children, right? But then you realized that the vigorous demands that were placed upon you in this academic setting most often required that you take a little afternoon respite. Unfortunately, however, nap time doesn't seem to have its allotted space on the real world schedule. People work from 9 to 5 -- and sometimes later.
So if giving up your nap after graduation sounds unreasonable, take the LSAT and go to law school. It won't be a dance party like Dartmouth, but your leisure hours may not be as limited as they will be on Wall Street. For now, enjoy life in this semi-idyllic setting.
