There are a little over 1,000 of you, swooping down into this isolated part of New Hampshire. There are over 3,000 of us, ready to join forces. One thing I can promise you as you start out -- it's going to be a wild ride. Welcome to Dartmouth.
You will talk much in the coming months to current students, and to your classmates, asking "how it went when you were a freshman," or "what to do in this case ..." You will discuss classes to take and must-have experiences and the curious fact that the central doors to Dartmouth Hall remain locked. You will ask about the Sphinx.
All that is well and good. But I would remind you to keep one thing in mind: your Dartmouth experience is going to be your own. Freshman year is a tumultuous time, and I urge you to try not to worry as you struggle in that seemingly inexorable tumult to find a place here. You will.
For proof of that assertion, I need offer nothing more than the inevitably varied answers you will get to your inevitable (and encouraged) questions. You will hear so many different accounts of meeting new people, classes, frat-basement debacles, late-night study-sessions... of adjusting. I guess offering you one more account in print could only help ...
I was so damn homesick my freshman year I thought it might permanently damage my brain. I'm from Seattle, and Hanover is an awfully long ways away from home, in ways even beyond geography. To be frank, the winter and spring of 2002 were, without a doubt, the most grindingly unpleasant months of my entire life.
In stark contrast, my sophomore year has been more or less... great. What happened? I adjusted. I met people, found a place in which I enjoyed living, got involved, got used to a new chapter in my life ... it is amazing how fast outlooks can change. I've come to the realization that I love Dartmouth as a school and I love the people I know here, but my home will always be back in the West, and I can enjoy my time here. And I've found a place for myself.
My point, in all this, is to tell you to expect nothing, and be ready. Part of what makes this institution so exciting are the different types of people it attracts. Don't worry if your feelings or concerns aren't the same as everybody else's as you start towards your degree. You and your classmates will spin a rope here from very different threads.
Some of you (I pray it be few) may have an experience like mine. Many others, like so many of my friends, will find your first year here electrifying -- intellectually stimulating and socially alive. You will rapidly transplant yourselves to Dartmouth life, and shoot off without pause. Smooth sailing.
This school is loaded with opportunity for you. Exploit it. Exploit your classes and your professors, your classmates and particularly upperclassmen (I cannot emphasize this enough). Take advantage of the area, of the services the College offers, of programmed events during your first year. Take advantage of advice from your parents and your peers.
Of course, you know all that, in the back of your mind if not in the front. There is really only one thing I have left to say, the best piece of advice I ever received, from someone I love very much: "Enjoy it."
Welcome to Dartmouth, Class of 2007. Get ready -- it's going to go by fast!
