I didn't have a typical American high school experience -- well, it wasn't even an American high school. I went to a French school just outside of Washington, D.C., but it might as well have been a world away from Dartmouth. Growing up, my classmates and I speculated what American high schools were really like. The football stars and cheerleaders weren't really the creme de la creme, were they? And everything we saw in "She's All That," "Bring It On" and "Clueless" couldn't be true, could it?
Without any firsthand experience, I can only go on what my friends in Hanover tell me -- or can I? In my years at Dartmouth, high school myths of popularity complexes and divided social groups seem to materialize before my own eyes in Hanover. When it comes to our social scene and campus dynamic, I sometimes wonder: Am I in high school?
This past winter, I became fully aware of how much Dartmouth really is like all those high schools I'd always heard about. Last fall, I was abroad and reveled in my own anonymity and unfamiliarity with those around me. I dreaded coming back to the small world of Hanover, where everyone's dirty laundry is common knowledge -- if you care to know it. Imagine my reaction when I opened the Jan. 18 issue of The Mirror, which dealt entirely with the notion of "the campus icon." Not only did the articles of the issue examine Dartmouth's fascination with "face time," the main feature actually proceeded to call out specific students who were considered to be well known or "campus celebrities" ("Campus Icons: Where Have They Gone?"). Even worse, the article essentially divided these so-called celebrities into different groups, such as "Sports Stars," "Croo Members" and "Student Assembly" -- labels that, unfortunately, say a lot at Dartmouth.
It was only a matter of weeks until another institutionalized popularity contest was underway. On Feb. 7, Dartmouth held its first "Mr. and Mrs. Big Green" competition in which contestants fought for those titles. I'm still not sure what the point of that production was, and I still have no idea what was required for any one contestant to win. Maybe it was an effort on the Student Assembly's part to create a more cohesive campus atmosphere. Frankly, I think any lesson I took away from the event was that spandex is essential to coolness in the Outing Club crowd.
These may just be isolated instances in a grander scheme of a generally friendly and cohesive Dartmouth -- but then, what of the Greek system? Many things have been said about it, but, whether good or bad, we can all agree that it divides one community into small subgroups. A bird's-eye view of Dartmouth might reveal nothing but an oversized, green cafeteria, with each house representing one lunch table. I'm reminded of the scene in "Mean Girls," when Lindsay Lohan is being shown around the cafeteria by her new friends: 'Oh, GDX -- the football table. Tri-Kap -- cool Asians. KKG -- Plastics. AD -- duh, sweet dudes.'
Obviously nothing is as simple as it seems, and these are all stereotypes pushed to their limits. But then there's the underlying insecurity of Dartmouth, something very few people want to own up to: Aren't we all just nerds at the core? How else can we account for our presence here? At the end of the day, a lot of people here have to be profoundly awkward and bizarre, incredibly smart or at least very hardworking. And at a school where a great many people are nerds at the core, it would make sense that some of us would want to rise as "king" or "queen" of the nerds. Maybe that's why everyone likes to self-call here or drink like a fish. It's a way of saying, "Yeah, I go to a nerd school, but I'm still cool! No, really, I am! Look how much I can chug in one go."
High school for a lot of people isn't a comforting environment -- people just accept you, they don't celebrate you. Dartmouth should be more than just 'accepting' -- it should be a place where people embrace. Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Almost Famous" brilliantly says, "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we're uncool." Embrace it, Dartmouth. Love your inner nerd. The sooner you figure out you have nothing to prove, the more worthwhile the remainder of your time here will be.
