As a member of the Class of 2004, I've spent the past four years that you've spent in high school at college. Just as you are collecting your belongings and memories and choosing the most important ones to haul to campus and fit into your little dorm room, I am taking stock of my own four years worth of memories and picking the best ones to take away with me. I know that you all will have your own incredible, fun and sometimes even bad memories by the time you graduate. Maybe you'll have similar ones; maybe your own top seven lists will be totally different from mine. So here, let me share some of these great memories with you, so that you have an idea of what to look forward to.
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Homecoming freshman year. Feeling like I was really a part of the Dartmouth family for the first time. Seeing all the generations of Dartmouth: aging alums next to wives with walkers, recent alums coming back home for the weekend and all of us current students. That night I got my first glimpse of why people are so fanatical about this place, and why so many alums came home again and again.
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Speaking at Women of Dartmouth. My freshman year, this annual panel wowed me as seven provocative senior women talked about their experiences at Dartmouth. I wanted to be as respected and as inspiring as they were so that one day I would be asked to speak and I would have something just as insightful to say. Knowing that as a senior I was respected enough to be on the panel and being told that I was amazing during it brought this new-girls-club-at-an-"old-boys"-school tradition full circle for me.
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Meeting a '71 in an airport. I always wear Dartmouth stuff when I'm traveling; it has helped me to meet all sorts of great people with connections to dear old Dartmouth and plenty of stories to share. The '71 told me about his Dartmouth of the past and I told him about my Dartmouth of the present. I will never get tired of such conversations. Maybe one day I'll meet a '29 at a train station.
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Beating Navy in the National Sweet 16 Championships in rugby. It was an amazing feeling to come to San Diego as the underdog and go all the way to the elite eight with my team; it was also an amazing feeling to help achieve greater glory for Dartmouth Athletics, knowing that we could only have gone so far with the help and support of the alumni who played before us -- including our Dartmouth '86 coach. If there was ever a moment that I felt so much a part of the Big Green family, it was at that moment when we all knew that not only were we honored to be daughters of Dartmouth, but that Dartmouth was honored by us.
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May Day Celebration at the Dartmouth Organic Farm. One of my first experiences seeing how a group of students can completely plan and execute an awesome event. It was also a day when I truly relished the beautiful Upper Valley spring and the rustic charm of the organic farm complete with a May pole, bluegrass band, sing-a-long and midday dip in the Connecticut.
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Climbing Mount Moosilauke. I complained every foot while hiking uphill with my team. But as I look back on the experience and look at the pictures of us at the summit, I am so proud that I met the same geographical challenge that so many Dartmouth students have conquered.
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Baker Tower. Seeing it every time I drive back on I-91 after going home for the holidays or to a rugby away game. Every time it brings a smile to my face. It's illuminated at night and during the day its bright white face is in direct contrast to the evergreen trees. It always lets me know that I am back home.
I'm moving to Seattle now, going thousands of miles away from the Lone Pine and the Big Green and some of the best memories that I have. But I'll come back when I can -- I'll come home. Hopefully by then all of you will be well on your way to making a top seven list of your own.
