I remember winter of my freshman year here to have been one of the darkest of my life. I was still trying to figure out where I belonged, what I enjoyed doing and who exactly I wanted to be doing things with. On top of all of that, it was cold and quite literally dark a lot of the time. Call it seasonal affective disorder or just being a college freshman in winter and not really having a clue, it sucked. And then came Winter Carnival, promising to turn winter magical once more, restoring my faith in the season and the place where I was spending it.
The weekend wasn't quite what I expected. In fact, I was so perplexed by Carnival at the time that it led me to write a rather moody and introspective article entitled "A Carnival to Remember?" in The Dartmouth. As you may guess from the slightly ironic question mark, the article was intended to be a pseudo-philosophical meditation on exactly what Winter Carnival was and why exactly everyone got so wasted during it. Escape, I concluded. It wasn't a celebration of the season, but an escape from it and the various and overwhelming stresses here at Dartmouth. We get stressed, we get wasted. I was quite perceptive for a freshman. Now I sit as a junior with better friends than I could have hoped for and at least a vague idea of where I'm heading as a person in this world. And I love winter. It's beautiful austere, glorious, awe-inducing. Which makes me think maybe it's nothing about winter in particular that makes it so dreary, it's just, as in so many aspects of life, a matter of perception. This sort of leads me to my point this Winter Carnival, and winter in general, do outdoor activities, drink with friends, whatever. But don't try to escape it. Embrace it.
A friend recently sent me a Wallace Stevens poem, "The Snow Man," about winter that might help elucidate my point. "One must have a mind of winter," he writes, "And have been cold a long time" to "regard the frost and the boughs" and the "junipers shagged in ice" to "not to think/Of any misery in the sound of the wind/In the sound of a few leaves." In short, by my interpretation at least, winter is harsh, frost-covered and cold. But it's freaking beautiful as well. To realize that beauty, however, you have to have that mind of winter, to embrace it. You have to take a moment, stand out in the freezing cold and falling snow and just admire it. It's pretty.
In the days leading up to Winter Carnival, I imagine you'll be stressed. Freshmen, I imagine a lot of you are somewhere like where I was two winters ago, with not much of an idea of what's going on. Sophomores, those of you on campus are getting into actual major work. Juniors, we're trying to figure out how the hell to start taking responsibility in our lives and finding work for the summer. And seniors, from my brief experience, seem just a little bit crazy. But instead of taking the weekend to just get trashed and forget about how cold it is and how stressed we all are, actually celebrate and appreciate it. Yeah we're all a little crazy, and it really is quite cold, but man! Stand outside and look around just once. We're young, smart and probably pretty cool people living in one of the most beautiful winter settings in the country. Not so bad.
I'll never be one against having a few drinks with good friends, but I guess all I want to say is to remember this Winter Carnival. Have a really good time. Take a moment and be a snowman and have a mind of winter. Stop to breathe in that cool, crisp, New England air and appreciate the season and where you are.
