As I've started to settle in for my second year at Dartmouth, I've been faced with a variety of unfortunate circumstances that have not helped my uncertainty about the years to follow. First, I was placed in arguably the least optimal dorm on campus the Lodge. Second, my lack of a concrete plan of study and general ambivalence about many of the courses offered, combined with lengthy waitlists for the few courses I could potentially enjoy, led me to struggle to find a course load with which I could fully get on board. Third, due to a variety of emotional and personal factors, as well as a general sense of anxiety brought on by the whole process, I decided to drop rush and wait until the winter to make another attempt at affiliation.
Regardless of these developments, my sophomore year was already taking on a noticeably different tone than my freshman year. Last year I moved into my dorm in a flurry of excitement bordering on neurosis; I brought more posters than I knew what to do with and every article of clothing I owned, just in case. I went out with enthusiasm every night of orientation, practically tripping over myself in excitement to meet new people, and I arrived with a brand new set of carefully organized notebooks and folders. This year, I drove myself up to Hanover, and when I opened my desk drawer to write something down, I realized I hadn't even brought a single pencil or pen. Where was the excitement?
These circumstances are in no way particularly unique. My experience is the experience of many other sophomores: whether my fellow '16s are disappointed about rush, lukewarm about our academic pursuits or dissatisfied with something else, many of us might find ourselves lacking the enthusiasm we exhibited in droves last year. The idea of a sophomore slump is a commonly accepted one that spans beyond the application to the typical college student, from athletes to performance artists; strong beginnings are often followed by mediocrity and discontent. And we certainly had a strong beginning.
We had First-Year Trips to kick-start the year, Orientation to welcome us in and the Homecoming bonfire to initiate us. Every blitz seemed to be directed specifically at us, marketing the wide variety of opportunities available to us. No more "Welcome '16s!" for us. College is no longer shiny and new. And now, with the sheer novelty removed, it is easy to fall into a pattern of ambivalence. Disenchantment and disillusionment can begin to seep into our experiences.
But the key to enjoying the sophomore year is to embrace the slump as a silver lining. Whether it's learning to love the Lodge for its sizeable rooms, private bathrooms and proximity to the new fro-yo shop, using my ambivalence about course selection as an opportunity to assess what I really want to study here at Dartmouth or coming to terms with the fact that another term outside the Greek system will have the added benefit of another term to truly establish myself within the larger community, there is always an optimistic approach.
This year is our year to figure out Dartmouth. What will Dartmouth be for us? Who will we be at Dartmouth? Our experience extends beyond deciding D-Plans or declaring majors, and while freshman year was exactly that fresh sophomore year bears a whole new brand of opportunity. Our slump is our time to relax before the onslaught of responsibility and maturity that will be demanded of us as we rise to become juniors and seniors. It is our time to simply exist before we have to figure ourselves out.
Instead of becoming ambivalent, I say we merely embrace the sensation of slumping reap the benefits of the natural slowing down of our lives here. It's our time to take that random class we've been eyeing even though we don't even need the distrib, to skip the clearly so-so night out we might have rallied for last year for a night in with friends. Accept that invitation to Thursday night pong or skip the reading we clearly don't need to do. Let's enjoy the slump while we still can.
