Within the last several months you've invariably heard many people remark, "college is the time to reinvent yourself." Usually said to inspire introspection, evoke possibility and kindle metamorphosis, this advice is instead underwhelming, overblown and vague the Chinese democracy of adolescent pity.
I understand their point. College is where we molt our old identities and develop new ones where we learn to be independent, responsible and tolerant. But there's a flaw inherent in the idea of deliberately reinventing ourselves, since doing so implies we're restrained by preconceived notions about who and what we want to be. College isn't Extreme Makeover. It's more like Scrubs, a wonderful journey filled with the uncertainty and contemplation of early-adulthood. What people should really say then, is that "college is the time to rediscover yourself."
That can be harder than it sounds. In high school I felt like I had to sacrifice personal exploration for college applications. That sometimes meant orienting my life around the opinions of an admissions officer. What looked better, joining National Honor Society or the debate team? Doing both, of course. So that's what I did. The only way to break out was to give in.
I think the first step we need to take as college students is to determine what we really like by uncovering the opportunities available to us. Rather than working backwards from a goal, as college admissions and reinvention require, it's probably better to work forward from successive experiences. We don't have to transform our lives overnight. It's more important to work on challenging projects that excite us, hone our skills and increase our options after graduation.
Thankfully, there's no better place than Dartmouth to be challenged. Here we can engineer racecars with Dartmouth Formula Racing or install hydroelectric generators in Rwanda with Humanitarian Engineering Leadership or influence New Hampshire legislation with the Policy Research Shop. And with the flexibility of the D-Plan, we can perform service or study abroad or intern nearly anywhere in the world.
Don't squander this opportunity to experiment. Our resumes shouldn't be biographies. Our curiosity is more important than our parents' expectations. What we do is less important than why we do it so long as we're not killing time on Bored@Baker.
A key part of college is trying to find balance. There's the balance between production and pleasure, scheduled and unscheduled time, present and future, solitude and sociability, adaptation and resilience. The list goes on. The challenge, to paraphrase Ben Gifford '10, one of last year's valedictorians and a former editor of The Dartmouth Opinion section, is to try to understand ourselves without sacrificing too much mental or physical health.
The next 10 weeks will be some of the most exciting, nerve-wracking and memorable times in your lives. You're going to meet tons of new people, choose classes, forget the names of tons of new people, throw frisbees on the Green, run around a huge bonfire, watch a cappella concerts, play real pong, order EBA's at 2:10 a.m., swear you'll never eat EBA's again, take exams and ruefully find yourself ordering more EBA's. For many of you, this will be your first time doing your own laundry. For others, it will be your first time wearing week-old underwear.
In the end, I think college is like the plot of One Hundred Years of Solitude, hard to get into, even harder to dislike and impossible to forget. Recognize that it's normal to be a little scared, or lonely or doubtful in the beginning. I certainly was. But also recognize that most things tend to work themselves out if you dedicate yourself to them. Just be natural. There's no need to reinvent the wheel.
Congratulations on making it to Dartmouth. Welcome home!
