There are some aspects of college life that most of us cannot escape. Stress, all-nighters and irregular day schedules hit all of us at some point. Having been here for less than two months, I have already spent too many nights in Novack Cafe, desperately trying to catch up with the new intensity of my college life. As freshmen, we struggle to adapt to Dartmouth, and we are forced to deal with anxiety in new ways.
The much-feared "freshman 15" is a result of freshmen's inability to balance their lives. The sudden access to vending machines filled with tempting sweets and late-night dining options offering delicious cheese-dripping paninis make it difficult for many students to go through the transition without gaining weight. Having interviewed a group of first-year girls about their thoughts concerning the freshman 15, I noticed that the fear of gaining weight affects most of us. As the threat of the myth causes much unnecessary distress, it makes our transition even harder.
I am stung with guilt each time I walk myself home to East Wheelock after a day devoid of any kind of physical exercise and pass the endless number of runners and athletes on their way to the gym. Looking around me in Food Court and Collis, I am surrounded by students wearing gym clothes and carrying their water bottles as if they just came back from an intense work out. Comparing myself with other students, I feel my self-confidence dropping and the threat of the freshman 15 rears its ugly head yet again.
An Eating Disorders Peer Advisor told me during an interview that the majority of girls on campus are concerned with their weight. Obsessing over weight can easily cause the threat of the freshman 15 to take a different turn: It can escalate into becoming an eating disorder. Contrary to the freshman 15, the topic of eating disorders is seldom brought up for discussion in everyday conversations. For those suffering from eating disorders, restraining from eating provides a sense of control in times of chaos. Similarly to the gaining of weight, this positions freshmen in a particularly vulnerable seat as they attempt to gain control over their new situation.
One of the freshmen girls that I interviewed for this column believes that the threat of gaining weight during freshman year is a rumor, yet she is still bothered by it. "Other freshmen girls told me about freshman 15 and I was scared. I still am!"
By expressing our fear of gaining the freshman 15, we subsequently create an ideal. We continue to remind ourselves of the prevalent body image ideal on campus and ignore the danger of weight fixation.
"We see scary skinny girls walking around campus but no one mentions it -- no one talks about eating disorders," said one of the freshmen girls during our interview.
Being too skinny appears to be more acceptable than being overweight, and the issue of starvation is infinitely more trivial than that of gaining weight. By ignoring the problem, we create a stigma that prevents us from fighting the presence of eating disorders on our campus. The taboo and ignorance surrounding the issue makes it difficult for existing eating disorder groups on campus to reach out to a larger crowd than those directly affected by the disease.
Dartmouth students must recognize that we are in a high-risk zone for acquiring patterns of eating disorders, as we are put under high academic and social pressure. By ignoring our vulnerability as freshmen, without much of a security network set up after no more than a few weeks in college, we increase our risks of accepting body image ideals that are defined by the "threat" of the freshman 15.
Rather than focusing on the danger of putting on a few extra pounds, we ought to emphasize the importance of staying healthy despite the extreme conditions that we find ourselves in.
