Here’s to the Sons and Daughters of Dartmouth
(06/12/22 7:05am)
This article is featured in the 2022 Commencement & Reunions special issue.
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This article is featured in the 2022 Commencement & Reunions special issue.
At a school as outdoorsy as Dartmouth, it sometimes feels like you need to be summiting mountains and backcountry camping in the wilderness of the White Mountains every weekend in order to call yourself a hiker. While some Dartmouth students do live up to this generalization, climbing a 4,000-footer is not everyone’s idea of fun. For those looking for less strenuous, closer-to-home hikes, there are plenty of trails for all skill levels. After conducting extensive research and braving these hikes myself, I’ve compiled my personal ranking of the Upper Valley’s best hike locations — from least to most enjoyable.
It was a classic spring day in Hanover — 50 degrees, overcast and drizzling — when we started our trek down to the Ledyard Canoe Club docks for our daily ritual: A dip in the river. Down at the docks it somehow felt even colder, but we peeled off layers until we were dressed in only our bathing suits. It took some mental preparation, but eventually, we jumped. The cold was sudden and shocking — we both pulled ourselves out of the river as fast as we could. This jump marked day five of our week of daily dips — a challenge we undertook to write about the classic senior spring tradition.
When I opened social media over spring break, I was instantly greeted by hundreds of pictures of Dartmouth students swimming in crystal clear water, girls in matching bikinis and location tags broadcasting the names of Caribbean islands I’d honestly never heard of before. After spending hours scrolling through picture after picture, I deleted most of my social media apps, unable to look at people’s seemingly perfect vacations for any longer. I was experiencing a classic case of FOMO (fear of missing out).
“Rent,” the theater department’s winter 2022 MainStage production, ran at the Moore Theater from Feb. 18-20 and Feb. 24-27. Though I don’t have experience performing at Dartmouth, in high school, I participated in the musical each winter and as I watched the cast of “Rent” perform, I couldn’t help but wonder how they balanced rehearsals with academics; it was hard enough for me to strike a balance in high school, and as we all know, Dartmouth is much more difficult than high school.
Many chemistry majors and aspiring doctors hear the words “organic chemistry” and shudder. The completion of CHEM 51 and CHEM 52, “Organic Chemistry,” is a rite of passage for these students — if they can make it through the courses without ruining either their sanity or their GPA, that is. The classes are notorious for their difficulty and recently have been characterized by an especially high number of student withdrawals.
Last Monday, I woke up to the sight of flurries falling from the sky, blanketing the campus in several inches of snow. As I walked to the library a few hours later, flakes quickly accumulated on my eyelashes and streaked my hair. The still-falling snow, coupled with canceled classes due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, made me feel as though I was reliving one of the many snow days that I had so treasured as a child. Unfortunately, though Dartmouth students may dream of snow days each time the weather forecast predicts any chance of flurries, the administration has historically canceled classes only under extraordinary circumstances.
During my second week of college, I found myself lying in a dentist’s chair in West Lebanon, clutching the nurse’s hand and regretting my decision to attend school many hours from home. When I thought about my ideal college experience, developing a mouth infection that necessitated emergency surgery definitely wasn’t what I envisioned. Yet, this experience encapsulates a unifying theme from my first term at Dartmouth — the need to grow comfortable with uncertainty, whether that arises in the form of surprise dentist appointments or other, less medically exigent, challenges.
I spent many sleepless nights this summer consumed by worries about college; my thoughts whirled in endless circles as I contemplated all of the gruesome fates that could befall me at Dartmouth. As September arrived and I set off on the 15-hour drive to campus, I was still plagued by worries — and unfortunately, the long trip gave me ample time to grow increasingly stressed out by questions of whether I would make friends, keep up with the demanding academics and survive living 1,000 miles away from my Indiana hometown.
During course election this fall, I was entirely preoccupied with figuring out how the timetable worked and deciding whether I truly wanted to take Spanish at 7:45 in the morning. The farthest thing from my thoughts was whether the professors who would be teaching me had tenure or not, but for those enmeshed in academia, standing for tenure is often one of the most pivotal moments in their careers.
