Class of 2015, we're not so different, you and I. We both start off the term with a familiar sense of nervous excitement. We both feel as if we're getting uncomfortably old you because you're starting college, and I because I never considered that I would one day see '15s on the Dartmouth campus us. But most of all, we are alike because we're Dartmouth students. That fact alone is really all you'll need to make some of the best friendships of your lives.
When you get to campus, things probably won't seem so familiar. You will soon find that frat parties are not the same as your high school get-togethers, that you actually have to study for tests, and that going to school with some of the smartest students in the country means you won't always be at the top. The culture is different, the teaching is different and romantic relationships do not form after only a few weeks of playful flirting in physics class. In all likelihood, you will feel a tension between the person you are and the culture you're in. This is natural, this is good and this is hard.
Let me give you an example from my own experience. I arrived on campus eager to immerse myself in the culture. My freshman floor was frattier than any Greek house on campus, and I was under the impression that Dartmouth was all about going out four nights a week and still pulling off good grades. I remember being in the library on Monday or Wednesday nights and feeling a genuine sense of moral guilt I thought everyone else in the library must have been finishing a thesis or studying for the MCATs, and I was the one misfit who dared challenge Dartmouth's four-nights-a-week party schedule for something as lowly as class work.
What I should have done was realize that, even if I was going against the grain in being studious and I wasn't, as my first couple of grades indicated it didn't matter. Your time here is too short to not do the things you want, even it means being in the library on Wednesday night instead of crushing 'stones with the hard guys.
Which brings me to my second point, which I hope you remember at least until Homecoming: People here may seem cool and fratty, but they are really huge nerds. Let me share a favorite (and slightly creepy) trick I've learned. When you get to campus, take the frattiest upperclassman you know, go to his Facebook page, and look at his pictures from sophomore year of high school. You will find that the guy you see running table and making throw saves five nights a week was once a skinny Mathlete with a bad haircut and Knowledge Bowl t-shirt. And that sorority queen whose house you desperately want to join? She was probably an awkward marching band leader. What this means is you can feel free to talk about politics or literature in the basement, or when you're just hanging out. People say that Dartmouth students don't like to talk about highbrow topics, but in reality they're just waiting for somebody to start the conversation.
At the risk of sounding like a smug upperclassman, I'll leave you with a piece of advice. Every day when you wake up at Dartmouth or anywhere ask yourself if this is the life you want to be leading. Answering this question for myself has been the most useful exercise I've ever done. It has led me to go on kayaking trips with the DOC instead of spending more weekends going through the same routine, to buckle down and study instead of watching more Youtube videos, to go to my friend's Hindu services instead of pong tournaments and, yes, sometimes to play that extra series before going to Fort Lou's at 6 a.m. The point is, at Dartmouth, like everywhere else, it is easy to get sucked into the daily routine. Doing so would mean missing out on the richness and variety that life offers. Especially here.
The next year will be a fun and confusing whirlwind, but after a while the dust will settle and you will find yourself firmly planted as a Dartmouth Man or Woman. It is then that you will see this school for what it is: a college on the hill that offers you tools for happiness now and throughout your life. It's time to get started. Welcome to the family.
