The first time I said I was "a '10" I was 15, hungover and at my dad's 25th reunion, at a session on "How to Get into Dartmouth," more precisely. The whole room clapped for me, and I clapped for myself because I was able to do math so early in the morning even before reaching for a bottle of water and some more Advil. And so began four (six?) years of debauchery and excessive drinking.
In case you've never read an article in The D about townies or legacies (I'm quoted in every single one) I'll let you in a well known fact I am both. So much of a townie that I am writing this article from my parents' family room, fearing that it's not quite clean enough for my "roommates'" return on Friday, and that every pong victory I have is easily written off by the other team because "she's been playing the game since she could sit on a table and hold a paddle," and that I still don't know how to do laundry because I just bring it home. There are essentially a limitless number of jokes to be made about somebody who lives at home in her house on Occom Pond (closer than the River dorms!) and whose father gets more facetime than she does.
I am always asked what it's like to go to college in my hometown. These questions are not reserved for Dartmouth students from California; my Hanover friends who went to Williams question my sanity, as do my family members and my Dartmouth friends from towns half an hour away.
My quick, explanatory answer is always "I went to boarding school" and "I haven't lived in Hanover my WHOLE life" and "my parents don't live here it's different." I'm pretty sure that any Dartmouth student should be able to see right through those excuses though. In fact, my boarding school was only an hour away and still in New Hampshire. Main Street Concord looks a lot like Main Street Hanover if you just put columns in front of the town hall.
Four years later, I am still coming to terms with what it meant to have gone to college in my hometown. College is supposed to be a challenge. You're supposed to step out of your comfort zone. It's supposed to be a completely new adventure not an opportunity for you to be the only freshman with a car who also knows how to get to West Leb.
Concretely, I chose Dartmouth because of the Women in Science Program and the Tucker Foundation, not because of its location or my family's connections. I ended up never participating in either and instead I embraced being a townie and legacy to the point that it almost became my identity while at Dartmouth.
But is this really all that bad?
My default in many social situations is often to reference being a townie or a legacy to provide different perspective on an issue. This might seem like a ridiculously lazy cop-out, but I honestly don't think it is. Both have actually provided me with unique experiences.
As a townie, I have had the opportunity to be engaged in the Hanover community in addition to the Dartmouth community. I have coached youth lacrosse every spring, and I have voted in every town election. I have also become more involved with my family (perhaps making up for my years at boarding school) just last week I attended my youngest cousin's piano recital and celebrated my grandfather's birthday with a family dinner at Jesse's. I have been able to exploit family friends in order to secure research and shadowing opportunities. (And I've had the opportunity to buy friends with my access to a fully stocked kitchen and non-basement pong scene.)
As a legacy, I have learned that my most memorable Dartmouth experiences will be the ones that could never go on my resume. My father's recounting of his glory days building the bonfire (Class of 1979: tallest bonfire ever) led me to be particularly involved in that effort freshman Fall. And his stories of spontaneous road trips (kidnappings?) to Florida allowed me to decide that it's OK to drive an RV down to the University of Virginia for the weekend, even if I have a paper due the next Monday. Finally, he has always impressed me with his dedication to the College, which encouraged me to start making gifts to the Dartmouth College Fund freshman year (along with Allie "Dodec/KDE" Miller '10).
Maybe, just maybe, because of my background I did not really consider any other college (I believe I left half way through my Columbia tour because their main cafeteria doesn't serve breakfast and I wrote off Stanford for being "too pretty"), but I don't think that choosing Dartmouth was a lazy choice on my part. I have had the unique opportunity to be engaged with the College and community in a way that others simply cannot be. Plus it has given my club lacrosse team a great place to hold semi three years running.
