Beginnings are the best: the beginning of spring, the beginning of a new term and, for many prospective members of the Class of 2010 nationwide, the beginning of college. In a matter of days, hundreds of prospective students will descend upon campus for Dartmouth's annual Dimensions weekend. For many, it will mark the beginning of their Dartmouth experience. Some of us current students will be happy with this influx of potential freshmen: hosting them, showing them around and trying to convince them that Dartmouth is the most awesome place in the world. And then there are those of us who will bemoan the fact that pre-frosh students will be invading our campus, eating at our tables and otherwise making their presence felt on our turf. But as I reflect on my own Dimensions weekend, I feel that prospies are objects not of scorn, but of envy. They possess something that many of us have lost with the passing seasons as one term has melded into the next: a sense of excitement, possibility and optimism that the sky's the limit and that anything can be achieved with a blank slate and a fresh start.
I can't recall too many times when love for the College was more pervasive than during Dimensions weekend. School spirit was at a high with the multiple performances and shows put on by various student organizations. Almost all the prospies I met during those three days were practically giddy with the thought of attending Dartmouth, of meeting new people, and of starting life anew as college students. The pre-frosh seemed to be riding an incredible high, driven by the sheer exhilaration of possibility, of newness and of Dartmouth. And to be perfectly honest with you, I miss that feeling.
Of course, we all knew somewhere in the back of our minds that it could not always be like that -- just like we knew after our freshmen DOC Trips that Dartmouth would not always be about fun in the woods and Salty Dog Ragging, and just like we knew after orientation that it could not be about work- and responsibility-free partying all the time.
Nonetheless, it was absolute bliss being so naive and oblivious during Dimensions -- impossibly intoxicated not with Keystone or 'tails but with the excitement and possibility of going here. I guess we are supposed to know better now, and to have adapted to the realities of school life that we, inevitably, could not escape. But frankly, I don't feel that we have gotten that much wiser than when we were here for our own Dimensions weekend. In fact, all I feel is a bit more jaded as time has passed. The fairy tale has faded somewhat. Everything is now old and routine instead of fresh and new. Visions of raucous fun and a general attitude of confidence and hopefulness are replaced by the harsh realities of work, fatigue and nagging feelings of ineptitude. This does not mean that I no longer love Dartmouth, because I do. In many ways, it has met and exceeded my already-too-high expectations. It's just that the possibilities and opportunities of new beginnings grow fewer with each passing term. Now we are just mired somewhere in the middle -- in a no-man's-land governed by routine and habit, lacking the freshness and excitement possessed only by a naive, oblivious prospie.
I cannot even believe that I am being all mushy and nostalgic when I am still a freshman and still have so much Dartmouth left to experience. But the impending Dimensions weekend just makes me realize that there is something so buoyant and so hopeful about starting anew -- about beginnings. I miss feeling that hopefulness. I miss being ridiculously, out-of-my-mind excited about Dartmouth. And while I know that there will be plenty of opportunities for that feeling to arise again, I sometimes fear it will never quite reach those prospie-during-Dimensions levels. So I want to say to all prospies who might happen to read this: Dartmouth is really an awesome place. The fact that I am nostalgic for the time I spent here before I even matriculated is a testament to that. I hope you all enjoy yourselves as you make your first plunge into college life. Because beginnings are truly the best.
