Green Key Weekend, the last of the three "big" weekends of my freshman year, is upon us. Its arrival, along with that of warm weather and freshly blooming spring flowers, makes me want to reminisce about the past year. I, along with about 1,000 others, began my Dartmouth career almost eight months ago, and (yes, I know this is a cliche, but it's true) I cannot believe how quickly my first year at college has gone. I know that many of my fellow 'shmen share this sentiment as we all long for those carefree days of orientation, when we didn't have 15-page government papers to write and when there was no one with whom the "I'm just a freshman" excuse didn't work.
But, wish as we might, none of us can go back to those September days (unless someone in our class has a time machine that I don't know about). What we can do, however, is think about how we've changed, as individuals and as a class, over the past eight months as well as how we, in the short time we have been here, have changed Dartmouth.
I think that each of us, as we have come to get to know Dartmouth through our own activities, have changed the way we view the College. I personally came here as the ultimate idealist, my head filled with visions of diverse and fascinating people, exciting opportunities and the chance to work hard in areas that intrigued me deeply. Yes, Dartmouth has all of this, but it has a lot more as well. No college campus is a utopia, and at some point every college freshman is forced to take off the rose-colored glasses that he or she was wearing during those first awe-inspiring weeks of being a college student. When the excitement settles down, we all came to realize that those fascinating people were just that, people, and not the super-human gods we thought they were at first sight. We realized that while this campus offers a plethora of opportunities, we simply would never have the time to take advantage of many of them. And did we ever realize that our work, while it would be interesting, would be far more challenging and time-consuming than any of us ever expected.
Now, don't get me wrong. I have not become a pessimist, and I'm not saying that we should not have come to these realizations. In fact, I believe that once those of us who were under the impression that Dartmouth was perfect finally noticed that we were wrong, everyone was better off. Once the members of the Class of 2001 realized what problems Dartmouth faced, we took it upon ourselves to seek solutions.
When I want to examine how the '01s grew as a class, I must look to our Class Council where I see hosts of talented individuals who have come together to work to improve Dartmouth. When I see the policy initiatives that they have pursued in the past year and will continue to pursue throughout the rest of the term, I am amazed. I think that the most important thing that our class has shown Dartmouth is that when a group of passionate, dedicated, hard-working people come together for a common purpose, the sky is their limit.
In terms of how we have changed as individuals, I do not feel nearly qualified to speak for every member of my class. In talking to my fellow '01s, I've noticed that some feel they have become completely different people, while others feel as though they've hardly changed at all. Looking around me, I think it is safe to say that almost all of us have gained a greater sense of who we are and what we want to do. I came to Dartmouth thinking I had my entire life planned out, even down to what law school I wanted to attend and what type of law I wanted to practice. I soon realized, however, that there were a wealth of opportunities that I was not exploring, and I now find myself wondering if I even want to go to law school at all.
Yes, in the past eight months we were all forced to take off our rose-colored glasses and face the fact that Dartmouth, like everything else in life, was not exactly what we had expected. But the next realization that we all must make is that in taking off our rose-colored glasses, we allowed ourselves to get a clearer picture of not only the bad, but also the good, at Dartmouth. This is the realization that will allow the Class of 2001 to retain its idealism.