I’ve found myself walking more slowly lately. It isn’t a conscious choice. I think I just exist in less of a rush.
At some point in my Dartmouth career, I realized that I had started walking much faster than I did before college. Even if I wasn’t running late, I was almost always speed-walking to my next destination. It made sense — considering I had crammed my Google Calendar with color-coded chunks carved out for classes, rehearsals, meetings and more. Minimizing my travel time became a way of maximizing my efficiency. To be clear, I loved every extracurricular to which I committed myself, and I would not have changed any of it.
This spring, however, I faced some vocal issues that forced me to pause a number of my singing-based commitments indefinitely — leaving me with the unnatural sensation of looking at a relatively bare calendar. Yet between medical appointments and occasional bouts of feeling sorry for my music major-self, I realized my suddenly open schedule meant I had more time to devote to my still-standing commitments: my classes, for instance.
One class in particular, MUS 27.01: “Musical Theater Writing”, ended up receiving a substantial amount of my time and creative effort, likely the most I’ve given to a College class. I could now sit with my work each week, spending hours writing, composing and rewriting. For the first time in a while, I wasn’t fighting the stress of chasing a deadline, settling for something just good enough. I was set on making something I was proud of. I had replaced the rush, the speed-walk, with a stroll: one that took longer, but gave me more along the way.
Especially in the second half of the term, the class became something of an emotional release for me, activating a love for songwriting and playwriting that I held onto even after the class ended. It might be my favorite class I’ve taken here, and that is largely because of what I was able to give to it.
If given the choice, of course, I would have never wanted to deal with such health issues in the first place. However, emptying my schedule granted me time I had never given myself before here, and I’m grateful for that.
It’s now sophomore summer, which means campus as a whole seems to have let out a breath we didn’t know we were holding. In a way, we’ve all slowed down.
I’ve spent my time this term swimming at the pool more, rewatching Modern Family and working on a play inspired by the theatrical storytelling I fell in love with in the spring. I’m rarely rushing anymore, and I’m okay with that.
There will hopefully be a day when I can sing as usual again — in campus groups, at the Church of Christ or even just in a Sudikoff practice room. But even if my Google Calendar does one day become crammed with color again, I hope I remember how I felt when it wasn’t. I have just five more terms left as a Dartmouth student after this summer, only four of which will be spent on campus. So, I hope I remember to walk slowly. The time passes quickly enough here without rushing through it.
This week in Mirror, we learn that the best things are always worth waiting for. One writer reflects on how a quieter campus has helped her find her place at Dartmouth, and two editors debut their cooking column with a strawberry cake recipe that balances the perfect blend of berry and batter.
Happy end of Week 4, Mirror. Summer’s almost halfway over — let’s savor it while it’s still here.
Vivian Wang ’27 is a Mirror editor and writer from the California Bay Area pursuing majors in Psychology and Music. In addition to journalism, she enjoys experimenting with storytelling in its many other forms, from arranging music to playwriting.
