Starting off the morning bright and early with mediocre chicken and waffles at a diner isn’t my ideal way to begin the day. But as I poured my (all-natural New Hampshire) maple syrup on those thick, doughy waffles this morning, I thought about how I probably am never going to do this again.
Wakeups, the tradition of waking up new members of a group to welcome them, are no secret; nearly every club participates in them. Freshmen stay up in anticipation after auditioning for insert-acapella-dance-comedy-community-service-group sophomores and juniors get excited to participate on the other side and seniors … normally dread losing out on sleep for them.
This morning, as I gazed out of the foggy car window at the leaves already starting to change their hue, all I could think about was that I should be soaking this tradition up, because it’s fleeting.
I sort of have a problem with this. Every fall I have to remind myself that no candle or blanket or light setup will make me truly, fully experience the season. It’s not like summer or winter, seasons that seem to drag to no end. It just comes and goes in transition, with the “true” fall season — peak foliage — lasting only a week or two.
Activities like apple picking or getting a pumpkin spice cider at Murphy’s are not things to collect in order to enjoy the season; they’re just fun. I don’t need to do a billion “fall activities” for it to feel like fall.
With homecoming approaching, it already feels like the midway point of my senior fall, and I’m not ready. In many ways, it’s my first normal fall term at Dartmouth: freshman year I was still getting my bearings, sophomore year I rushed and junior year I was gone. This is the first term that I can truly smell the roses … leaves.
I’ve thought about how to remedy this melancholic feeling. Here is my game plan: rewatch season 1 of “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” (for nostalgia), find new study spots (to break up the monotony), genuinely engage with the people I talk to during rush (so it doesn’t feel like a chore) and try to not complain too much about my activities, because, as my brother said when he visited over Family Weekend, “Never lose sleep over college extracurriculars.” I think that’s pretty sound advice.
This week in Mirror, we take a look at campus from both within and afar. One writer documents the history of study abroad programs on campus. Another writer spotlights the Makerspace studio. A third writer examines the culture of friends sharing locations.
Happy week 3, mirror! Go get that maple creemee.
