Oh dear, now what? I hear so many people complaining about the lack of things to do around here. Are they serious? So many things are happening on this campus every day. Sure, we don't live in New York City, but that just means we can walk around at 3 a.m. and feel safe.
There's some sense that we are missing so much 'culture' by not living in a city. The Hop hosts so many cultural performances every term! For some reason, there are hardly ever more than a handful of students who attend these events, though they're often wonderful. The Drama Department puts on at least three or four productions, mainstage and student-run, every term. How many of us would honestly go to see more than four plays a term, even if we did live in New York (especially considering what it would cost you there)?
At other times people complain about a lack of places to hang out. What about Food Court? The Big Green Bean? Dirt Cowboy? The Collis game room? Your dorm lounge? Your dorm room? Lone Pine Tavern? Don't these places count?
Still other times, my friends whine about the fact that "nothing is going on." Almost every day there are lectures, discussions, concerts, movies, sports games, cultural events, fundraisers, art exhibits, and/or social events going on all over campus.
If you still can't think of things to do, check the Blitz bulletins, actually look at the posters at Food Court, and read your friends' auto-replies. Hey, if all else fails, get involved! Any Dartmouth student with more than an hour of free time a day needs to join a club, an IM team, a community service organization, a performance group, or something! What more do you people want, honestly?
Along these same lines, many freshman have complained to me that they have no where to take their prospective students. Personally I think this is a problem with a simple solution. The administration gives the responsibility of hosting the majority of prospectives to first-year students. I think that prospective students should be hosted by upperclassmen.
What did I know about Dartmouth my freshman fall? Very little, I can tell you. Trying to entertain my prospectives wasn't the easiest task for me either. I found ways, but I could do so much better now that I've spent a full year here. As a 'shmen, I had many upper-class friends on my hall at Topliff, which was a good thing. I always made sure that my pre-frosh spent time with them, because upperclassmen could answer questions so much better than I could.
What are finals like? What happens at Winter Carnival? Does the D-plan hurt friendships? Are LSAs and FSPs really worth it? How are the classes overall here? Is it easy to go skiing every weekend in the winter? How cold does it really get? What's the real story about Fraternities and Sororities? Is the English department good? No first-year could answer these questions based on their personal experience in their first few months at Dartmouth.
However, since I doubt anything is going to change anytime soon, I'll offer some suggestions about things to do when you're hosting someone. Take them to see the art at the Hood, go play pool at Collis, hang out at the Green Bean, show them the statue of Robert Frost, visit Occum Pond, take the audio tour of the Orozco murals, let them try a banana-chocolate-strawberry shake at Lone Pine, go see a movie at the Loew or at the Nugget, start up a frisbee game on the Green, take them to an a cappella concert, show them your favorite place to study, let them play Snood, take them to dinner with a bunch of your friends, let them play water Pong, go on a dorm tour and visit all your friends' rooms, watch sports in Collis, show them the wonder of Ben and Jerry's, drink Shirley Temples' at the bar at Murphy's, show them what life is like at La Casa, go support a Dartmouth sports team, play tennis, go on the Green at 6pm and sing the Alma Mater for them. Just a very few suggestions.
There are So Many things to do on campus! If you would take just a minute to look around you would find them. So stop all the whining, please! There aren't enough hours in the day for me to do everything I want to do at Dartmouth. Get involved. Take advantage of the myriad opportunities for fun and enlightenment on our beautiful campus.
