I was at a party a few nights ago with a lot of seniors, and one of my friends cruelly popped in the "St. Elmo's Fire" soundtrack, rendering many of us in the room emotional wrecks. "You can't play 'St. Elmo's Fire' during Senior Week!" one of us protested, in vain of course. Comments like these are typical as Senior Spring draws to a close and Commencement Day approaches. Because, today is the day that none of us wants to arrive. For all our griping about the lack of social options in Hanover, or about the absurdity of the $15 Dartalk monthly fee, Dartmouth seniors want to stay Dartmouth seniors, if only for another term, another week, even another day.
I remember walking around town last year during Senior Week and seeing graduates-to-be, good friends of mine, walking around as if they were in a daze, as if they were having out-of-body experiences. They were going through what the Class of 1998 is going through now. Anything that alludes to us as alumni makes us queasy -- requests for donations, e-mail-for-life accounts. And we wonder, if they put the Berlin Wall up overnight, why on earth do they have to take a month to erect that graduation platform, reminding us every day as we cross the Green that the end is near?
And yet, the day we never thought would come is finally here. "Pomp and Circumstance." Caps and Gowns. A lot of people will be giving us advice, about how we should make the most of our Dartmouth diploma, how we should go out into the great beyond and be good citizens, and make the world a better place. It is a day to look forward, to peek into our futures and to wonder what is in store for us as we leave the comfort of the Hanover Plain. Indeed, tomorrow will be the first day of the rest of our lives.
But today, at least for one more day, we are Dartmouth students. So in addition to looking forward, I urge my fellow seniors to also look back. For although these four years, which seemed to fly by so very quickly, are all but gone, the experiences we've had, the friends we've made, the memories we've shared, will last a lifetime. Perhaps my favorite Dartmouth song, "Dartmouth Undying," is about reflection, about the imprint of the College being burned into our collective minds. Consider the beautiful words, "Who can forget her soft September sunsets? Who can forget those hours that passed like dreams? The long cool shadows floating on the campus, the drifting beauty where the twilight streams? ... Dartmouth Undying like a vision starts: Dartmouth, the gleaming, dreaming walls of Dartmouth
miraculously builded in our hearts!"
And so today, as you listen to the words of Doris Kearns Goodwin and outgoing College President James Freedman, as you walk up to that stage to receive your diploma, may your fondest Dartmouth memories burn brightly in your minds. May you be thinking of the men and women you've loved, of your first all-nighter, of waking up on someone else's couch, of the 4 a.m. trips to Fort Lou's, of jumping off the rope swing, of floating down the River in a tube, of freshman-year snowball fights, of sliding down the icy golf course hills on a DDS tray, of climbing through the window of a fraternity to sneak inside during freshman fall, of piling into a car and going to Montreal one night just because you could, of hiking Mt. Moosilauke, of doing the Salty Dog Rag in front of Robinson Hall, of drinking yourself blind at Murphy's for the world to see on your 21st birthday, of going to the copier and picking up your finished thesis and being so happy you wanted to cry, of staying up till 7 in the morning arguing with your best friends about nothing in particular, of sleeping until 2 p.m. because you didn't feel like going to class that day, of the first time you ever set foot on this beautiful campus, of how the Green looks today with thousands of people celebrating our graduation, and how we still can't quite believe this is happening to us.
Today is a day for family, for friends and for the celebration of our graduation from Dartmouth College. It is one of those rare days in which all the human emotions can converge on a grand scale -- joy, sadness, anger, fear, regret. I know that for me, it is a day of deep reflection. I sincerely hope that for the other members of the Class of 1998, today is a day not just of looking forward, but also one of looking back. It's great to know where we're going, but even better if we can hold close to our hearts where we've been.
