The Italians have an expression, “ci metterei la mano sul fuoco,” which means “I would put my hand on the fire.” I’m told that people use it when they are 100 percent sure of something. I think it’s strange that at Dartmouth we have a very similar saying: “Touch the fire, freshmen.” Although we might not really know why we tell the freshman to touch the fire or why we even have a fire every year, the bonfire is more than a century old and just as popular as ever. A keystone in the Dartmouth experience, the bonfire embodies many of the values that we share as a community, whether or not we’re proud of these ethics.
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Dear Freshmen,
What’s your name? Where are you from? Where do you live?
Okay, now that we have that out of the way, how’s it really going? I’m too busy counting the days leading up to Homecoming, while giving myself paper-cuts due to an overwhelming amount of job applications. But, all personal crises concerning impending doom and poverty aside, I’m actually rather giddy about the upcoming weekend. You see, this weekend is Homecoming. And that means the campus will be over-run with chafey alumni who will drink your booze, pass out on your toilets and cry in the corners of countless basements. They will drown your youthful innocence in stories of their 120-hour work weeks and tales about that one time when they hung out really hard and really late. They will compare you to that one dude who was way ragier than you’ll ever be and did that thing that was so cool and ridiculous.
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I may just be the only Big Green student to reach her junior year without having ever experienced the glorious event that is Homecoming — the colossal bonfire on the Green and the innocent freshmen circling the fire to the whoops and hollers of upperclassmen, townies and looming Safety and Security officials posed next to their trusty bikes.
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