Editor’s Note

Happy Week 1 Mirror! It’s Aditi!

It’s so good to be back. I spent winter term in Boston, swept up in the hustle and bustle of city life, except “hustle and bustle” is just code for curling up at home during a variety of snowstorms, blizzards, etc. Absence does in fact make the heart grow fonder, and I occasionally found myself gazing out my window at TD Garden and wishing instead for the familiar chaos and comfort of Dartmouth’s campus. I’d like to think that I grew more reflective during my time away, so perhaps my Editor’s notes will finally be about something other than me being afraid of growing up. 

I have to say it plainly: I hate winter. I hate the way it quiets everything; how it asks you to shrink, to tuck yourself away and wait it out. There’s something a little unnatural about how still the world feels, like life is happening somewhere else and you’ve been temporarily excluded. Spring is different. Spring feels like being let back into my own life. It’s warmth returning to your hands, light stretching later into the evening, the slow, steady reminder that things can begin again. 

I’m so excited to be back at Mirror. There’s something about this section that feels like spring, too. I’m especially excited to work alongside Leila and our new team of executive editors, and to see what we can build together in this season of fresh starts.

Hi Mirror! It’s Leila!

I’m looking down at my red boots. They’re muddy and tracking dirt into my room. Here in Hanover, that’s a telltale sign of spring. 

After spending all of winter in my desolate single in Topliff Hall, I decided, despite my squatter’s rights to continue living in a dorm, to move into my sorority house. Many people questioned my decision. It’s nearly impossible to get spring housing, and my friends joked about how Summit on Juniper would be the new happening place considering how many students were put there. Why leave my perfectly nice single for a one-room double in a house with a ladybug infestation and pounding music you can hear on the second floor at 1 a.m.?

I thought about the real upsides of Topliff. Being close to the gym? That’s a sad perk. My junior year I’ve found myself enjoying more solitary time. And Topliff encouraged that. But I’ve realized these past few days of being on campus that I hadn’t realized how much I missed saying hello to a roommate when I woke up, or brushing my teeth next to a friend I want to get closer to.

I’m really excited for Mirror this spring. I think this term is when Dartmouth really wakes up. 

This week in Mirror, we get back into the pace of things. Our relationship columnists tackle the issue of incomplete breakups. We also get to know our Mirror writers as they reflect on spring at Dartmouth — past, present and future.