So I guess people are in a little bit of a tizzy
about East Wheelock: the infamous "Supercluster" with "rooms like a hotel." Blah blah blah. Again, columnists and gossips are referring in anger to the exclusive luxury enjoyed by the unfairly privileged residents of "East Wheelock-Ourselves-In."
When I applied to live in the "special" dorms across from the gym last spring, I thought that the minor controversy was kind of fun. I even saved the hostile, anti-East Wheelock columns and stuff so I could show friends at home how I was going to live in the fancy, dorky, nearly Nazi-like dorm for the elite. I think I even pictured the soup-seller in the "Brace Snack Bar" throwing my snacks to me, shouting, "No fun for you!"
But now that I'm here, a full-fledged resident of Zimmerman Hall, I see these Superdorms for what they are: dorms.
Sure, the first week was kind of exciting and different, as the returning residents helped to envelop me in their precious community. Not only did they help accustom me to the family-like atmosphere, but they even explained how private, East Wheelock showers don't require shower shoes. No shower shoes! I still can't believe it.
But now I am learning the truth of the whole matter. East Wheelock is only different, special and controversial because people think it is. Some "outsiders" love to hate it because they think it's morally wrong or because they're jealous, and some East Wheelockians love to love it because they want to be special.
Either way, it is just a dorm, surrounded by an unbelievable amount of unnecessary hype and criticism. I mean, even freshmen have annoyingly said things to me like, "Wow, you lived in the Choates last year? This must be a huge step up for you." And it is incredibly annoying, so please stop. Plus, it's completely ridiculous, especially coming from people who have probably never even been to the Choates.
So having lived in both "the bottom" and "the top," I just don't understand what the big deal is. In East Wheelock, people bond by playing table tennis, discussing relevant issues, having pizza with deans and going to interesting functions on campus.
In the Choates, people bond by hiding each others' sponges and towels in the bathrooms, watching movies together when it's too cold to walk anywhere, living with basically seven roommates and complaining about each others' excessive noise.
Both types of bonding and friendship create the same sense of community and family. If you want to go to "Carmen" with people in your hall, then sign up to live in Zimmerman. If you want to live in a summer camp cabin, then live in Bissell.
If you want to meet interesting people, meet annoying people, watch TV with those people and get to know them better than you ever wanted, then live anywhere on campus. All of the dorms, I would be willing to bet, accomplish the same thing -- allowing people to meet each other -- just through different means.
I mean, I really do love the pretty and friendly atmosphere of the "Supercluster," but I dearly miss living with my dysfunctional little Choate family. And I strongly dislike aspects of each living community, as well.
You see, there are certainly good things and bad things about all of the dorms on campus, as well about nearly every institution on earth. But people will continue to complain about them.
Dartmouth students will continue to complain about, ponder and criticize housing and social opportunities for the school, especially for as long as there are no other issues to worry about in the world, such as human rights, disease, war or anything like that.
So I guess maybe it's beneficial to have critically important, life-altering problems like an unfairly elite dorm cluster and an eternally threatened Greek System; at least it gives us something to think about.
Don't get me wrong, I really do love my semi-private East Wheelock bathroom; it's pretty nice. But after all, it is just a bathroom.
