This is a piece specifically for the members of the Class of 2006 who made the humble decision to attend Dartmouth College by the May 1 Regular Decision deadline. Of course, the Early Decision kids are welcome to read on, as well, but you might not really "get" everything, just like we didn't "get" your privilege to slack off all of Senior Year once your thick envelope arrived in December. And yes, you did miss out on a great time at Dimensions weekend, but I think some of my fellow Regular Decision applicants would have made the sacrifice in exchange for a few less months of agonizing anxiety. But I digress. I maintain no bitterness toward the college application process, I promise.
Nonetheless, here you are, about to embark on your first year of Dartmouth life, no matter how you got here. In the first few weeks of school people will often ask how you came to attend Dartmouth. I always told them, "Well, I just kind of ended up here." If you're feeling that way at all, have no fear. So do others, and you'll realize it soon enough. Sitting out on the Green the night before leaving for our Freshman Trip, getting our first taste of EBAs and wondering if anyone else would be willing to admit that the much-touted staple of Dartmouth life really didn't taste very good at all, my trippees and I began to introduce ourselves. "Hi, I'm Caryn. I'm from Long Island. I'm thinking about majoring in English." "Hi, I'm David. I'm also from Long Island" -- the introductions went on in that same vein most of the way around the circle -- "I really enjoy golf." And then there was Tom. "Hi, I'm Tom. I'm from Long Island, too. I kinda think maybe I should've gone to Georgetown." Silence.
When you get to know some people a little better, I bet you'll notice a bit of a pattern. A lot of people weren't supposed to be here. "So what other Ivy were you rejected from?" becomes a common question. "Brown." "Harvard." "Yale." "Harvard." "Harvard." Funny, you don't find many people answering, "Cornell." But anyway .
It won't take you long, however, to realize that most people should only be so lucky as to "end up" at Dartmouth. You'll be walking across the Green on a perfectly clear night and see Baker Tower against a blanket of stars and get a chill down your spine. You'll stay up all night with your floormates sharing ridiculous stories of high school trials and tribulations and realize you do have something in common. You'll win your first game of pong and savor the cheap, bitter taste of victory (OK, it's not quite as dramatic, but trust me, you'll remember it for the next four years -- hopefully).
For me that defining moment was the night of the Freshman Sweep and Bonfire. The one piece of upperclassman advice that I'll deign to impart to you is to get involved in building the bonfire. When you're standing atop 60 tiers of timber, looking out on the campus and scrawling your name upside-down on a piece of wood, you'll realize that you're a part of over 200 years of tradition and history, and even that fleeting recognition is priceless. And then Friday night, you get to run around the towering inferno, dodging rugby players and trying to count up to 106 despite the fact that you've changed direction 17 times. I remember sitting slightly removed from the crowd after I'd completed my marathon, wiping the soot from my eyes and watching the bonfire begin to fall. I saw alumni of all ages, their kids fully dressed in Dartmouth attire, and thought to myself, "I never want to miss a Dartmouth Homecoming."
Spending a lot of time on Alumni programming has also enhanced my gratitude for what we have here at Dartmouth and how much a part of our lives it will continue to be long after graduation. The old guys have some stories of revelry that even surpass our own experiences of college life, and you only have to ask to get them started on hours of conversation about Dartmouth. Some of them just "ended up" here, too. But 50 years later, they're still coming back.
So all of you Regular Decision kids may have taken the long route here. You may still feel a twinge of bitterness when someone back home mistakenly asks you over break how you're doing at Brown. You may joke, as my friends and I often do, whenever something goes slightly wrong, that you should've gone to Duke. In my experience though, perhaps I did just "end up" at Dartmouth, but that haphazard landing is easily the best thing that's ever happened to me.
