Green Key is touted as a weekend off, a holiday with no clear purpose other than to lay in the sun, drink in the morning and leave your books in your backpack. Sounds great, right? Well, no. In reality, classes do start again on Monday, finals are in two weeks and no invented college holiday makes drinking at 11 a.m. normal.
If you're not excited about Green Key because you are going to spend it in the library, you don't like drinking or you are allergic to the sun, don't fretYou may feel like you're the only one, but you aren't. And I promise, the stories you hear are often much more exciting than the events themselves.
Do go to Gammapalooza though. You can do that on a study break, drink water, sit in the shade, and it will still be fun. Also, you can people-watch and likely see people constantly do embarrassing things.
I'm not trying to be crass, and perhaps it's just the jaded senior in me talking, but I don't really like Green Key. Expectations make me nervous. Social expectations make me more nervous. Social expectations to be a bouncing ball of happy energy with no problems make me the most nervous.
I'll tell you the stories of my Green Keys. Freshman year was wonderful. I danced. I laughed. I probably went to an Aires show and ogled over Henry Luehrman '12 (Hi Tyco!). Green Key was perfect freshman year.
But I was one of those unaware freshmen for whom everything seemed perfect freshman year. Sophomore year, I was about 100 miles from civilization on a bike trip across Alaska. The Saturday of Green Key, I woke up with my bottom lip swollen to five times its normal size. Some bug bit me in the night. I remember last year very well.
Friday, I sat on the lawn in front of Beta and watched some band play. I wasn't having fun, then I got anxious about not having fun, then I got anxious about not getting my work done. Then I went to the library. Saturday was a little better. I sat on the Phi Delt porch until the wee hours reminiscing with alums. It was surprisingly fun.
To he honest, Green Key kind of scares me. Any weekend predicated on drinking, especially for seniors leaving in a month, is a recipe for self-destruction. I Good Sammed my best friend freshman year over Green Key.
I don't think my anxiety over the expectation to have fun is rare, and we often deal with this anxiety by drinking until we can't remember what we did, but it must have been fun, because it's GREEN KEY, MAN.
There is one old tradition I think Dartmouth should being back bussing in fun-loving ladies and gentlemen from other schools. New friends! Friends that you won't have to awkwardly see in class on Monday!
So, my advice: set your expectations as low as possible, and the weekend will actually end up being fun!
