For the first time in what seems like years (but is really only 16 months), a term is taking place at Dartmouth, and I'm not there to see it. I didn't have to wait in line at registration, move from one dorm to another or swear that this term would be the one without procrastination.
I am fortunate enough to miss these joys because this term I am finally taking a leave term. As I understand it, leave terms are designed to allow students to work at high-powered, resume-building internships. Many students I know are living in the cities of New York and Washington, D.C., and working for investment banks and magazines and law firms. Some are even, God forbid, working for free; their only rewards being that of a job well done and a prestigious name on a resume. They pay big-city prices for rent and entertainment, and in exchange are able to experience life in the "real world."
I have instead opted for what I consider to be a compromise between the isolated "I'm-still-not-a-grown-up" world of Dartmouth and the "I-ride-the-New-York-City-Subway-to-work-thus-I-am-an-adult" reality of most internships. I am spending the term working for the Sun Valley Ski School. In other words, I'm a ski bum.
Unfortunately, life as a ski bum has not been exactly what I had expected. For one thing, this ski bum job is taking up all of my ski time. That is the problem with working for a ski resort; one is expected to work during the prime skiing hours. In fact, during the holiday rush it was difficult to get even one day off to use my weekly free pass. This full work week is, of course, drastically different than the three hours a day, three days a week class schedule that I was accustomed to at Dartmouth.
Despite this busy work schedule, I find that I am at a loss as to what I should do with my free time (other than ski, of course.) Being twenty-one makes me eligible for the thriving bar scene, but like any social scene, it gets expensive. And since I only know about four people in town (aside from other ski school employees,) sitting in a bar hoping to run into someone I know is not feasible. It is during my free time that I truly realize how different life on a leave-term is -- mainly because free time doesn't really exist at school. Rarely do students have time during a term when there is not some kind of studying to do.
I also find myself back where I was freshman year, forced to make new friends. Almost everyone here is at least five or six years older than me (if not 10 or 20) and a year-round resident. This is their "real life." No longer is everyone bonded by a desire to learn, or membership in the same age group or an affinity for the color green. The only thing we all share is a geographic location. And an affinity for the snow.
Sun Valley does have some amenities that Dartmouth lacks. These are in addition to seven detachable high-speed quad chairlifts, three new multimillion dollar day lodges and the most advanced automated snowmaking in the world. The new River Run Lodge, complete with cathedral ceilings, wall to wall oriental carpeting and gold fixtures in the restrooms, is certainly a more pleasant eating environment than Food Court. I don't even miss All-You-Can-Eat-Pasta night.
And while Dartmouth may have local celebrities like Sleazy the Wonder Squirrel and the Happy Hop Guy, it can't compete with the crowd at Sun Valley. Here we come face-to-face, on an almost daily basis with Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, Jamie Lee Curtis and Clint Eastwood and even Arnold Schwarzenneggar. I will always be able to say that it was Maria Shriver who taught me to spell Schwarzenneggar.
I guess even a ski term can be educational.
