About two weeks ago, the telltale signs started pouring in from my friends at other schools: Facebook status updates, phone calls, e-mails, all conveying the same message. Across the country, the Class of 2008 is graduating.
Although here at Dartmouth the D-plan allows seniors to hold on a little longer than most, the writing is still on the wall that we've got one foot out the door. We've donated to the Class Gift, activated our alum.dartmouth.edu accounts, gotten copies of the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine in our Hinman Boxes and -- say it ain't so -- lost our DA$H privileges.
President James Wright even told us at our Daniel Webster dinners that, very soon, this will no longer be "our Dartmouth." Great. As if we needed another reminder that we'll soon be on the outside looking in.
If you've guessed by now that perhaps I'm a little bitter about graduating, you're absolutely right. It certainly says something about the quality of life at Dartmouth that many of us have to travel through the five stages of grief before accepting that graduation is just around the corner.
But there's a second, more subtle reason why part of me doesn't want to leave. After four years, I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of college. This weekend, an '07 who was back for Green Key told me he had felt the same way. "I kept getting better and better at college through senior spring, but just when I thought I'd perfected my craft, it was over," he lamented.
With this in mind, here are just a few of the things that I wish I had known all along:
Work, party and sleep.
When you get down to it, these are the three things you can do in college. Trouble is, you only have enough time to do two of them well. The solution? Start drinking coffee. Sleep is for the weak.
You can't do it all.
We're the overachievers in a society of joiners, and from the moment we set foot in Hanover, groups from every corner on campus are begging for a piece of our time. Naturally, we want to try everything. My freshman year I joined some groups just to be more involved, only to realize later that I couldn't care less about them and hated the time commitment.
You've got to pick and choose. If you get over-extended and your activities start feeling like obligations, don't be afraid to pare them down. No need to feel like you're drinking from a fire hose.
Take time for yourself.
It's easy to feel like a hamster on a wheel at Dartmouth: There's always something you could be doing. But while the work is always there, it's not the work you'll remember. It's the barbecue that turns into drinks at 5 Olde that turns into getting up four hours later to watch the sunrise from Mount Cardigan that turns to going to The Fort for breakfast that turns to sleeping through your classes. Those are the memories that you'll look back on and smile.
Go out on off-nights.
Tired of shuttling from one overcrowded registered party to the next? Feel like you can't make real connections with people in the basement? The problem isn't the system, it's the day of the week.
Off-nights are quieter, feature shorter lines and self-select a crowd of people that prefer a more relaxed scene. Don't tell me a couple games of pong will ruin your concentration in class in 10 hours. Just think of it as a sleep aid.
Eat off the beaten path.
The best DDS dessert isn't a Pavilion cookie, it's a Collis brownie. Orange almond crunch, mocha cranberry -- these aren't foods, they're creations. I'm hoping and praying that they make tuxedo brownies again.
As far as eating out goes, while Molly's is the place to see and be seen, and Canoe Club fills the "it's classier so he must really like me" date spot niche, you can do far better by leaving Hanover. Better food, better prices and a reprieve from the bustle of downtown Hanover. Remember, facetime isn't everything.
And the best pizza in town? C&A's, with Molly's a close second. Sorry Ramunto's, although I have heard good things about your Lebanon branch.
It goes by faster than high school.
We call it four years, but it's actually 120 weeks, and it feels like a blur. Don't put things off with the assumption that you'll get to them later. Even this spring, my "Things To Do Before I Graduate" list keeps getting longer rather than shorter.
On the night of June 8, I'll probably lie in my bed at home and say to myself, "So, that was college." I'll be thrilled it happened, regret that it ended so quickly and wishing I could do it again.
Maybe I'll even wonder why I ended my last Mirror piece ever with an O.C. allusion. I never have been good at goodbyes.
