Last Thursday night I went to my final "Will the Women of Dartmouth Please Stand Up?" panel and it got me thinking, as it has for the past four years. The panelists' stories were incredible, and their empowering personalities made me proud of their accomplishments, and my own as well. But now, as a senior, I felt the same sense of finality that recently has been accompanying everything that I do. No longer can I go out and get involved in all the areas of Dartmouth that I have wanted to. I am proud of what I have done, but sad that those endless possibilities of two or three years ago no longer exist. They have been defined by experience and by missed experiences. For example, I can't remember why I missed the Take Back the Night March my sophomore year, when every other year I have gone and been impressed by the feeling of solidarity the march created. I only missed one year out of four, and then it was probably because I thought I couldn't take off an hour from studying or hanging out with my friends. But now I feel I lost a great opportunity. It seems that, these days, every time I go see a speaker or go to a new meeting, I discover more interests into which I wish I could devote my time. There are countless opportunities offered to every student at Dartmouth, and it is difficult to even recognize them, let alone get involved.
Being at the women's panel made me proud of every person on this campus, and specifically of those who were in the room with me. But then I realized the abundance of seniors in the room. Not that there shouldn't be seniors there -- in fact, I can only wish that more had come. But sadly enough, as our time at Dartmouth comes to a close, it really is almost too late for us to take the words of advice offered by those incredible women specifically for living at Dartmouth. Good advice is good advice, and we can take it with us out into the world, but I am writing this as a plea to all those underclass men and women out there. Time at Dartmouth may seem eternal -- I know it did for me once -- but it comes to an end all too soon. Take advantage of all the opportunities that you see because it becomes a lot harder out in that scary world.
As one of Thursday night's panelists stated, any person who has been through Dartmouth in four years (give or take), could get up and tell his or her story and it would be incredible. Dartmouth is all about learning, whether we like it or not. We learn in the classroom, but more importantly we learn about ourselves: what and who we like, and who we want to be. For most of us, it is just the time of life to define ourselves. Not that everyone graduates knowing what he or she wants to do (unfortunately, myself included), but we are all on the way to figuring that out. So go to that Untamed Shrews performance, that political or club sports meeting, and don't be afraid to voice your feelings and to find out what others are all about. And next year, go hear about the experiences of some incredible '98 women. I promise that it won't do anything except make you realize what extraordinary people they, and you, are.
