The end of my first year at Dartmouth is rapidly approaching, and many of us freshmen are in disbelief that a quarter of our time at this school has already passed. Some of us have changed more than others, but everyone has had an experience that, to some degree, differed from what we expected when the Dartmouth acceptance letter came in the mail. The usual cliches about the transience of college life certainly apply to our time here as freshmen we are still caught between the world we came from and the institution that we have so recently become immersed in. Unfortunately, in the process of managing the transition between high school and college, we may find ourselves becoming people who we no longer recognize.
To some extent, we all sought to be something more than what we were in high school. During my DOC climbing trip, my tripees took turns talking about one aspect of their personality in high school that they wanted to change in college. At that early point, our desire to change was admirable in that it was a genuine wish for self-improvement. I sincerely wanted to learn to be a better companion to all of the people around me, not just my closest friends. In the coming days, I increasingly believed that being tossed into this melting pot of exceptionally talented and interesting people would ultimately make me into a new, more dynamic individual. The potentially transformative power of the Dartmouth community was already apparent from the first days of Trips and freshman floor bonding.
Of course, there is a darker side to Dartmouth that I was initially blind to. While I understood the strength of the community, I didn't realize the extent to which a tendency towards conformity influences social dynamics on campus. I am not speaking about conformity of personalities as individuals, we have dramatically different interests and backgrounds. Instead, we all have an inclination towards viewing other people through the lens of hierarchal social orderings and group stereotypes. On some level, we are all guilty of attaching meanings to labels rather than recognizing the fact that every individual is unique.
This dichotomy between conformity and individualism is what makes the Greek system both a blessing and a curse. A Greek house can be an awesome space for students, a space where we meet and form relationships with people who we would never have gotten to know otherwise. My own college experience has been tremendously enhanced by the openness of these social spaces. However, when significant numbers of incoming freshmen begin to idealize drunken boorishness or learn to judge strangers on the basis of the Greek letters on their t-shirt the social potential of the entire system is undermined.
This brand of conformity has led many of my peers astray. The people we should truly respect and admire are those who go their own way and maintain friendships with the people they genuinely want in their lives. Instead of striving towards being themselves, many people end up mimicking a stereotype of the ideal Dartmouth.
I know that in the beginning, I was extremely susceptible to treating stereotypes as truth in my naivete and desperate desire to fit in. Thankfully, I can now look back and laugh at myself for engaging in the absurdity of ranking Greek houses and judging the value of people by their pong skills. The people I know who have had the most difficult time finding themselves at Dartmouth are those who have most completely bought into this childish perspective.
The wealth of experience and opportunity on this campus is truly extraordinary. Looking back on my freshman year, I am certain that there is no place where I would rather spend the next three years. I only hope that as a campus we can learn to look beyond the idiotic and superficial labels that only serve to cheapen the Dartmouth experience.
