One of the nicest things about Dartmouth is being able to get away from it for a bit. Last weekend I went home briefly, and this weekend I'm going down to Boston to see the Head of the Charles Regatta. Short trips, just two hours each, and really not that big a deal, but it is a nice change from campus scenery.
It was also nice to return to the security blanket of Dartmouth when I had had my fill of being away. However, there is something a bit peculiar about arriving back on campus, and I can't quite put my finger on what it is. It seems like you're returning home, but home has changed, or might have changed, a little bit in your absence. Wouldn't it be horrible if you had missed the latest gossip of the weekend while you were off-campus? Perhaps part of it is that you realize that life at Dartmouth goes on without you. Whatever the reason, things seem just a little bit different.
Even when my friends and I take a quick trip into West Leb, the return is a little odd. While coming back to Hanover you catch a glimpse of Baker Tower from one of the hills, and it all seems a little surreal. The College on the Hill is a moniker that we are all familiar with, but sometimes I think that it is not a literal reference to the topography of the campus, as much as it is an allegory for the separation of the College from the rest of the world.
I think the relative seclusion of freshman year developed in me a severe sense of this separation. On the one hand, there's Dartmouth, and, on the other hand, there's the rest of the world. This was never made more apparent when friends from here would visit home, or friends from home would visit here. It was a collision of two different worlds. After a number of mixings of the two, the effect lessened, but it is still noticeable and awkward every time it recurs. The fact that I was the only person from my high school at Dartmouth also heightened the feeling of separation.
It is easy to settle into our own little secluded world up here. We never need to leave campus. Sometimes we don't even need to leave our dorm. Even when I lived in Hitchcock, sometimes the walk to Food Court was too far. Food, academics, parties and entertainment are all provided for us within this little world, and, for much of freshman year, I never ventured beyond these constraints, as much for lack of desire as for lack of opportunity. However, ski trips in the winter, a roadtrip during break and various weekend getaways in the spring soon cured me of my reclusiveness.
What I discovered was that as much as I enjoy being here at Dartmouth, there is a whole world of things to do in the Upper Valley area besides trips to K-mart, as well as short day trips to other parts of New England. Burlington, Boston, even Montreal all make for great trips, and any other college where you have friends (and thus a place to crash) is a great trip.
The other benefit from all this traveling is that when I return to Dartmouth, I return with a sense of satisfaction in our school, a contentedness that arises from knowing that there is no other place that I'd rather be spending four years.
