In high-school I heard that if it were possible for places to fornicate, Dartmouth would be the love child of Disneyland and Hogwarts. Except, unfortunately for baby Dartmouth, Disneyland and Hogwarts split up and Hogwarts got custody of Dartmouth. Distraught with heartache, Hogwarts started seeing a series of dive bars and their influence gave little Dartmouth its frat scene. Fast-forward to my freshmen fall DOC trips: impressive looking buildings and people in costumes; hello Hogwarts, hello Disneyland, in the battle between reality and my expectations, so far it's a tie. Then came orientation, hello influence of all those bars on dear little Dartmouth; hello expectations, good to see you, glad you and reality are getting along so well. Then came the start of classes and bye-bye expectations: hello Baker Berry library.
As I enter my sophomore winter, although many of my own hopes for life at Dartmouth have been surpassed, many have sadly been squashed by reality. When I became a pledge of Psi Upsilon fraternity in the fall, I had no idea what to expect. That term ended up being the most fun I never want to have again. I went from feeling sorry for my female friends at the start of rush to envying them as pledge term started. As far as classes themselves, my expectations for the academics have fallen short of reality, particularly in the "picking a major" category. I was pre-med for a week or so last year (I hate you, Chem 5) and then flirted with the idea of becoming a lawyer (yay money!), but I wasn't a fan of the mounds of paperwork and all that jazz. I interned at an Investment-banking firm this past summer (yay money without law school!). Unfortunately, none of these options really kept my boat afloat.
Coming into college, I had no particular area of interest. While I knew I sort of maybe preferred humanities to the sciences, I just assumed I would take classes that looked nifty and eventually fall madly in love with a subject then major in that. Shockingly, that has yet to happen, but I need to pick a major by the end of this term, so if anyone has any suggestions please blitz me. As of now I'm planning on majoring in marrying rich, so if anyone has any tips for that either, same thing. Thanks.
In the long-run though, college is a time to try new things, and you can't do that if you plan out everything from the start. I haven't had any huge curveballs thrown at me yet, but I have definitely done a bunch of things that I couldn't have seen myself doing back in high school. Here's to hoping that the next two years hold the same.
