Even without punishment from S&S and HPo, Dartmouth students choose to punish themselves. We repeatedly cause ourselves stress, fatigue and often physical pain. The courses, extracurriculars, sports teams and (hopefully only) occasional drinking binge can definitely take their toll on a Dartmouth student, but there must be some benefit from this self-induced punishment, right?
How many times have you heard someone complain about their 9S or some x-hour while racking up a game of pong? Of course, one thing leads to another, and the next thing you know they're hungover as hell in a 9 a.m. class. This sort of self-punishment is fairly simple to understand some people prioritize drinking over lucidity in class. Fine. Is there anything good coming from it? Sure. They got to party, and if that's more important than an x-hour, who cares? Either you chose to drink in spite of your class, or you chose the class in spite of being a borderline alcoholic.
But there is more to our propensity for self-punishment than just pursuing fun at the expense of our dignity. Dartmouth isn't just a bunch of drunks complaining about hangovers in class. Some of us don't even like to drink. Our ability to inflict stress and pain on ourselves goes much deeper than having a drinking problem.
Simply going to Dartmouth is asking for it in case you haven't figured it out by now, this isn't exactly a safety school. If you can get in here, chances are you can get in to many schools that are far less demanding and dare I say more fun. I'll use myself as an example. I could have gone to UC Santa Barbara and enjoyed SoCal beaches for the price of in-state tuition. I sometimes wonder why I flew across the country to Dartmouth, trading easy classes, year-round sun and parties ranked tenth in the country by Playboy Magazine for high tuition bills and four years of academic rigor. But these days, I'm starting to realize that I brought the punishment of harsh winters and tough courses on myself because despite the various chafes, Dartmouth is a damn good college.
Now, it would be simple enough to just take the courses that we need, but there are people who punish themselves with an academic course load that would challenge even the likes of Hermione Granger and her little Time Turner. For example, look at Jesse Peltier '14, who is taking Native American Studies 34, Philosophy 8, and Chemistry 58. For those of you who don't know, Chem 58 is honors orgo. Not just the infamous orgo, honors orgo. Why would someone wish that on himself?
"It's mainly to get ahead, but pushing myself does play a significant role," Peltier said.
In addition to his course load, Peltier is a Native American Program intern, historian of the Native Americans at Dartmouth and is trying to get involved with a research job. Is that it? As if taking courses with geniuses wasn't enough, we just can't seem to say no to signing up for all the stuff we love to do. It's all fun and games until you're awake at 5 a.m. trying to figure out why one of your many groups' blitz accounts is broken.
Our disregard for comfort and sanity stretches from the classroom and the realm of clubs into athletics, as well. Many of us are varsity athletes who have spent our lives playing a sport, and we know the pain/endorphin cycle well. But what about the Dartmouth students who pick up a new sport in college rather than just hanging out and putting on the Freshman 15? Andrew Shanahan '14, who started playing rugby here at Dartmouth, is one of these people.
"Sports are a way to meet new people, be part of a team environment and stay in shape," he said.
That seems fair enough, but it seems like we as Dartmouth students always seem to focus on the upside of things when we know that they are only going to make our lives here more complicated and stressful. But these self-inflicted complications are often seen as unavoidable in the pursuit of success for many Dartmouth students. "Dartmouth students are stuck in a mindset where getting great grades and having unrealistic extracurricular success go hand in hand. Failure to produce both of those things is unacceptable to lots of people here."
So there you have it. We may be punishing ourselves, but we are also stretching ourselves. Whether it's the hungover x-hours, the ridiculous schedule, the new sport or the mere fact that we are at a school where a quarter of the kids were high school valedictorians, we push ourselves past what other people think is normal. And perhaps that's exactly what the "Dartmouth Experience" is self-punishment.
