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The Dartmouth
March 29, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Mirror Asks

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 What has been your favorite Dartmouth memory?

Claire Callahan: Getting to the [Moosilauke Ravine Lodge] after Trips — the energy was electric and so happy.

Yuna Kim: Looking back on freshman year, I’ll probably just reminisce on all the incredible friendships I’ve made.

Eliza Jane Schaeffer: I don’t believe in having favorites, but one of my happiest memories at Dartmouth is from the first nice day of my freshman spring. I was sitting on the Green with a group of friends, and someone driving by rolled down their window and screamed “People are happy!”

Sarah Alpert: Last spring term, there was one week after it got warm out when my friends and I just didn’t do work for the entire week. We just sat on the Green every day, and it was glorious. 

Novi Zhukovsky: Going to the Organic Farm in the fall with my friends and making pizza.

Tell us about your most memorable birthday.

CC: On my 15th birthday, my best friend and I flew to Spain.

YK: When I was 10, I had all my girlfriends over, and we ate rainbow cake and sang karaoke all night. 

EJS: I remember feeling so old on my 10th birthday. Which I now find hilarious. 

SA: For my 3rd birthday, my parents hired a clown. I was completely horrified, which is probably why I remember the birthday in weirdly vivid detail.

NZ: Since I was 10 years old, every year on my birthday, I have gone to a restaurant called Alice’s Tea Cup in New York City for afternoon tea with my mother. It’s a tradition I look forward to every year.  

If you could stay one age for the rest of your life, what age would it be?

CC: 30.

YK: I’d love to be 22 my whole life. It has a nice ring to it, and I don’t know — it just feels like the perfect age to me.

EJS: Definitely 5. I didn’t know how good I had it.

SA: I feel like 18 was a great year. It’s a sweet spot between childhood and adulthood, where you don’t yet have real responsibilities as a first-year college student, but you also can have amazing new experiences.

NZ: Probably late 20s.

When did you or will you consider yourself “grown up”?

CC: Maybe after college?

YK: I’ll probably feel like a real adult when I have to start paying for everything myself, though (yikes).

EJS: I can’t see myself ever reaching an age at which I’ll feel like I have everything figured out.

SA: Someone told me I was an “old soul,” when I was around 12, so I think part of me has always been “grown up” in a quiet, grandmotherly sense. But I can’t imagine I will ever reach a point where adulthood feels real.

NZ: Once I get my own apartment and move out of my parents’ house.

Would you rather look old or young for your age?

CC: Old.

YK: At this point in my life, probably a little older. Once I pass my 20s, though, probably younger.

EJS: This feels personal. 

SA: Young! Someone recently said that I look like a middle schooler, and if this gap continues, it will definitely pay off later in life. My mom still got carded at restaurants well into her forties, and that’s goals.

NZ: Old until I’m 28. After that, I want to stay looking young!

Would you rather age from the neck up only, or the neck down only?

CC: Neck down. 

YK: Definitely the neck up.

EJS: Definitely neck up. I can’t imagine anything worse than having the mind of a 20-year-old and the body of 80-year-old. Like at least when your body falls apart, you’re also kind of senile, so it’s less terrible. 

SA: Neck up. As long as the rest of my body is young, I can run and hike and do all the activities that keep me happy.

NZ: Neck down only. I think that people’s faces are the most important feature and tell the most about them.