This article is featured in the 2025 Commencement & Reunions special issue.
There’s a bench on the Green from the Class of 1938 adorned with a plaque that says “Sit down and enjoy this beautiful view! We did!” This bench, situated directly in front of Baker, provides the best view on campus. And, in the middle of two beautiful trees, there is always ample shade. Sitting on this bench when the Baker bells ring to signal the passing of yet another hour feels like a scene out of a movie. Add in some falling leaves and a latte, and you’re on the set of a Hallmark movie.
Over the last four years, I have frequently found myself sitting at this bench — it has truly become my bench. Before my English classes in Dartmouth Hall, I would frequently stop to finish my readings. When I have no lunch plans and want to enjoy a quick bite to eat, I like to sit down to enjoy my signature Hop salad. After I come in from a run around Occom (a roccom), I catch my breath and sit for a moment to drink some water. Or, in the fall, when the leaves are falling and the air is crisp, I like to sit and enjoy a pumpkin chocolate chip muffin from Lou’s.
This bench and I go way back. During my freshman fall, I got COVID. This was when protocols were still very harsh, so I was required to move from my dorm in Mid-Fayerweather Hall to Russell Sage Hall for a whole week. For a whole week, I lived all alone, in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment meant for four people. For a whole week, I made the trek up the West Wheelock hill to a side door at Foco to retrieve my pre-packaged meals. For a whole week, I did classes on Zoom and watched more episodes of “Gossip Girl” than I can count. This was quite the experience for a first-year student during their fifth week at Dartmouth. But, when I was feeling up to it, I would go on a walk and then sit for hours on this bench, just to feel close to people. The moments spent on this bench were the highlights of my days.
For as much time as this bench and I have spent together, I never noticed the plaque on the back of it until last fall. While I was heeding the advice of the Class of 1938 and enjoying the view of Baker right in front of me, I began to question whether I was truly “enjoying the beautiful view” of my entire Dartmouth experience. Yes, it’s one thing to find moments to admire campus in passing on your way to class — it’s easy to do so when you go to a school as beautiful as Dartmouth. But, like this plaque on the back of my favorite bench, were there less noticeable, yet equally beautiful things I was failing to notice? Was I moving through my Dartmouth experience too quickly to truly take it all in? Was I ignoring the advice of my favorite fictional movie character, Ferris Bueller? You know, the iconic quote: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Everyone used to tell me that the four years of college would go by much quicker than the four years of high school. They were completely right, in a way, but those people hadn’t experienced a year in Dartmouth time. Four years at Dartmouth literally went by in the blink of an eye. It’s like there’s some cat-year conversion system at play here.
But isn’t it the pace that makes Dartmouth unique? People used to ask me if I enjoyed the quarter system. I always said yes because if I didn’t enjoy a class, at least I only had it for ten weeks, and the ten-week quarter system allowed for generous breaks. In all honesty, I liked the quarter system because it was achievable. I was constantly working toward that week ten goal, where, after, I could finally get some rest from the race.
Dartmouth time has changed me. I measure time by what week of the term it is, knowing that weeks three to five will be busy, with some solace during six to eight, just to be hit with finals during weeks nine and ten. Then, I will leave this place for a break, extending anywhere from three weeks to two months, just to come back again and repeat the cycle. Add extracurriculars, and each term turns into a never-ending cycle of crossing off to-do lists and making new entries into your calendar, moving meals with friends around just to catch up. Not to mention, getting sick here feels like drawing a “pick up four” card in Uno and barely being able to hold onto all the cards.
Just this week, my final week of senior year, I have been busier than ever. Between graduation photos, fraternity and sorority formals, saying goodbyes to underclassmen, working final shifts at my off-campus job, hunting for a post-grad apartment in New York City and trying to remember that finals still apply to me, I have barely found the time to write this TTLG.
During my final days here, I should be taking the advice of the Class of 1938 even more seriously. I should be “enjoying the beautiful view” every chance I get. But I haven’t. I have been trapped in the cycle that is Dartmouth, unable to break free for some final moments of peace.
Before I traveled back to campus for the spring term, my parents told me to take it all in. They kept saying how these are the “good old days,” and I’ll look back on this time of my life and cherish it forever. I don’t think I fully grasped what they were saying until I finally had a free moment to take a seat on my bench to write this. At one corner of the Green, some people were playing spikeball. Others were lying on towels reading, and a few dogs chased frisbees. The sun was at a perfect height in the sky, and the temperature was finally hot enough to ditch the sweater. As the hour struck six, the Baker bells went off, playing the alma mater. And this is when I truly started to enjoy the beautiful view.
I realized that six months from now, when I am walking home from the subway to my apartment, those familiar bells won’t chime six times. My best friends won’t live down the hall, and I won’t be able to take a woccom or order my favorite smoothie from Collis. I won’t have my social calendar planned for me, and I won’t see at least five people I know every time I leave my house. I won’t live in the place that has become my home. Life, as I know it, will change. I will change.
My entire Dartmouth experience was marked by the expectation that busyness is good and quiet moments are bad. I have always felt the pressure to constantly have meal plans or fill every block in my calendar with something. This is the norm at Dartmouth, but this is no way to live. This is no way to take it all in.
So, here’s my advice, and something I wish I’d learned sooner. Don’t wait until your last week of senior year to truly look around you and take it all in. Slow down enough to notice the plaque on your favorite bench. Hear the bells as something beautiful, not just another marker of passing time. Cherish the quiet moments you spend with yourself and remember that sprinting can only carry you so far. Sit down and enjoy the beautiful view that is your Dartmouth experience and realize how lucky you are to be here.
Gianna Totani is a former Executive Editor of The Dartmouth and a member of the Class of 2025.
