It’s reached the point in the term where I look back on the past nine weeks and wonder how the days passed by so quickly. This term, I’m feeling the fickleness of time even more so than normal — on Friday, my younger brother and only sibling will graduate from high school. It feels like just yesterday he was 14 years old and starting his freshman year.
Part of the reason I’m writing my Editor’s Note about his graduation is because the card I’ve been meaning to mail home will inevitably be several days late. At this point, I’m hoping my musings in the coming paragraphs will somewhat make up for that. But even more importantly, his graduation and the end of my junior year have left me reflecting on my college decision process and my answer to “why Dartmouth.”
Over the course of my three years here, I’ve sometimes wondered what my life would have been like if I had chosen to attend a different school. As the cliché goes, the grass is always greener on the other side. When I’m stumbling through Boston Logan Airport at 5:30 in the morning to get home after finals, I’m eager to bemoan how much quicker it would be to travel home if I had gone to school in state. When all I want to eat is a Chipotle burrito, or when I have to trek through a foot of snow to get to my dorm room, I dream of schools in big cities — preferably near chain restaurants — or in warm-weather locales.
All this is to say that the constant pressure of Dartmouth can make it easy to focus only on the roadblocks I’ve faced during my time here. And yet, thinking about my brother’s upcoming college journey has reminded me to concentrate less on these challenges and instead on why I chose Dartmouth.
As I write this Editor’s Note, my “why Dartmouth” is this: I picked the Big Green because I can hike Gile Mountain in between classes and fling myself into the Connecticut River after a long run. My “why” is performing in a fraternity house with my summer dance group and eating chili and cornbread at the Lodge with my best friends on my twentieth birthday. It’s hiking through the Scottish Highlands during my semester abroad in Edinburgh and seeing nine Broadway musicals during my off-term in New York City.
If I was tasked with answering this question each term I’ve been at Dartmouth, I would have different answers every time. It’s unimportant and unsurprising that these answers have changed — I’ve picked up new interests, declared new minors and made new memories. What’s essential, though, is that I can still articulate why I love the College, and why I remain grateful to be a student here. To all of the soon-to-be high school graduates, no matter what challenges the next four years throw at you, I hope you’ll find the same genuine love for your future college as I have for mine. And to my brother Grant, I hope that you never lose sight of your “why Boston College.”
This week in Mirror, our writers spotlight Dartmouth’s unofficial mascot, Keggy, as well as off-campus restaurants near Hanover. A former Arts editor reflects on the ups and downs of her time at Dartmouth, and a former Opinion editor reflects on leading the Opinion section throughout campus turmoil.
Happy week 9, Mirror, and a happy graduation to all who are celebrating this weekend. As extracurriculars slowly wind down and campus — hopefully — enters a pre-finals lull, crack open this week’s Mirror in your newly acquired free time. See you next week.
