Last July, my sister came up to Dartmouth for Sophomore Family Weekend. Only a couple weeks before her 23rd birthday, Amy had already finished college. She went to a university in Florida many times the size of Dartmouth, but despite finishing in under three years, she still found time to be very active in her sorority (Tri-Delt), to work on campus, to volunteer in the community, and still graduate Summa Cum Laude. She finished her masters only a year later. Suffice it say, this was not just her first visit to this campus, but probably her first time in any college setting where she wasn't swamped with work.
Amy was only here for three days, but she loved every minute of it. After getting coffee at the Dirt Cowboy Cafe, taking in any number of events on campus planned for the weekend, or just touring the campus she found "stunning," she told me for the first time since I've known her (roughly my whole life) that she actually envied me. At the weekend's end, her only regret was not coming to visit sooner and staying longer.
For the short time she was here, she recognized the uniqueness of Dartmouth, and if the story ended here, this might be evidence for how good things are on campus and how we shouldn't have to change anything about this wonderful place. Unfortunately, the story has a very different ending with a very different statement on what needs to be changed here on campus. That summer weekend was not only the last time my sister saw Dartmouth, but it was also the last time I'd ever see Amy alive again.
Less than six weeks after her visit, a drunken college student made the decision to drive his Chevy Blazer home at 3 a.m. Amy, also out with her friends in the same part of Miami, decided that she and her friends should call a taxicab because it would be safer than driving themselves home at 3 o'clock in the morning. When the Blazer rammed into the driver's side of the taxi, a good friend of my sister's died instantly. Amy died in a hospital a week later.
We are very lucky here at Dartmouth, luckier than most of us will ever know. We do not have to make many of the decisions that millions of people across this country make on a daily basis. But despite that fact, the potential for disaster right here on campus is ever present and always threatening. It only takes a single ill-fated decision to do something you'll regret for the rest of your life, altering, if not ending, the lives of more people than you'd think (nearly 1,200 attended my sister's funeral). And every decision made when not of sound mind only increases that likelihood. So please, think before you drink. It's not just your liver that's at stake.
