In case you haven’t heard, it’s that point in winter term where everyone is sick, unhappy and wants to go home, but we still have a month left before spring break. Not a great picture.
I was sitting in the fuzzy white chair in my room, bemoaning this tragic reality, when I made a groundbreaking discovery: College does not last forever.
That realization may sound trite, but stay with me. There is a lot of pressure put on college as an experience. When I redownloaded TikTok to stay up to date on New York’s expensive influencer-ridden food scene, I was flooded with videos about how depressing postgrad life is, and how I need to enjoy my carefree college experience while I’m here. It’s scary stuff.
I think at Dartmouth, we know we have to enjoy our time here. In winter that sounds something like skiing every week, polar plunging during Winter Carnival, sitting aesthetically on the upper deck of Sanborn, sipping on a cup of lemon ginger tea, of course, and maybe some simultaneously wholesome and degenerate Wednesday nights thrown in for good measure.
I don’t love that mindset. It assumes that the way to get the most out of your college experience and time at Dartmouth is to maximize every possible “fun” activity.
The issue with that is that most of the time I’m pretty tired, my desk is messy with piles of papers and I have zero free time to, say, go skiing. How do I maximize my college experience in these instances? Most of the time the days just fly by, then the weeks go by and suddenly I’m more than halfway through my junior winter, and starting to understand that I’m approaching the dreaded “lasts” of Dartmouth. Eek!
Am I doomed? Probably. But I don’t like to think that way, so I’ll offer some positive words: Yes, college is hard. It’s difficult to squeeze in every ounce of fun you think you need to, and especially for ’27s and ’26s, who feel that deadline pressure — graduation — the most.
Yet, when I stopped thinking about college as a collection of fun moments, and rather as a journey with ups and downs, I suddenly realized that I have so much time, and so much more room to truly enjoy my time here as a whole. When I’m in the trenches with work, I can make the effort to leave my room and walk across the Green in 15-degree weather to the 1902 Room. When I’m exhausted I can still make plans to Woccom with friends.
The point is, I’m not going to make a fuss about how it’s Week 7 and campus is dreary and the snow is starting to look dirty. So what! Dartmouth doesn’t last forever, so why not engage with a little more positivity?
This week in Mirror, one writer reflects on getting older and transitioning away from Greek spaces and down Main Street. Another writer gets creative with Foco ingredients. A third writer goes deep into the history and current state of general stores in the Upper Valley. Eli and I return to our Freak of the Week column, where we give advice on an awkward friend-with-benefits situation.
Happy Week 7, Mirror! Did I read that right?
