When I arrived at Dartmouth with my teddy bear in my arms (it's a coping mechanism, I was nervous), I had one goal: to make friends. Coming from a fairly large high school where I had a fairly large number of acquaintances and moving to a new place where I had fewer friends than I had fingers was really scary. I wasn't in fact, I'm still not concerned about what I wanted to do with my Dartmouth degree after graduation. It was and still is impossible for me to think that far ahead. Instead, I just wanted to fit in again and feel comfortable around 4,000 strangers.
Needless to say, I've made friends in my two years at Dartmouth. Real ones! Who really like me! The connections I made during First-Year Trips and Orientation helped boost my self-confidence as I slowly began to realize that everyone was just as apprehensive about college as I was. I commend the Dartmouth Outing Club and the O-Team for organizing these programs in a way that facilitates student interaction because they were catalysts for forming my first friendships here.
But college isn't all about our social interactions we must declare majors and take on leadership roles, and some of us realize that we can't do everything we set out to accomplish during Orientation. At the beginning of this term, I received far too many blitzes about my incomplete (read: nonexistent) major card from the Office of the Registrar.
I am now officially an English major, and while I've known what I wanted to study for a while now, I felt pressured to make it official it was like declaring a Facebook relationship status, but with more consequences. For some students, working toward a major means they have to forgo their other aspirations.
Kyle Saltsman '13 came to Dartmouth knowing that college would be radically different from his high school experience. He recognized that there was a "wealth of opportunity" at the College to try new academic fields and activities, but ultimately, he had to "commit fully in one direction" to his environmental engineering degree.
Saltsman, who had originally planned to study abroad, realized that he could not finish his degree, study abroad and explore a wide variety of classes in four years.
"I think that's a college thing," Saltsman said of prioritizing his goals. "I think that's a growing up thing." But Nora Hodgson '13 went to Barcelona in the Winter after deciding that she wanted to pursue a bachelor's of engineering degree through the five-year program at the Thayer School of Engineering.
"After freshman year, taking all of my pre-reqs in my first two or three terms, that's when I realized that's not what I wanted to do with my major," Hodgson said.
Instead, Hodgson decided to modify her engineering major with studio art something she had given up in high school and wanted to explore more in college. Rather than being a "more intense engineer," Hodgson said she found a "happy medium."
Some of us graduate high school with lofty goals for our athletic careers. When I say "us," I do not mean to include myself I was a mathlete who bruised like a peach. But sometimes, we must readjust our goals because of events that are beyond our control.
Brad Nelson '13 was cut from the cross country team during Spring term.
"I've had a lot of sickness and injury issues these last two years," Nelson said. "Athletically, I've been a little disappointed, but I also feel like it's something that I haven't had complete control over."
Now, Nelson said he wants to focus on staying in shape.
Whether we have found a new campus group or quit our varsity sports to focus on other activities, Dartmouth has changed or perhaps helped us achieve our initial goals. And I, for one, am thankful for that.
