Walking into my two-room triple this term to two barren, stripped beds stunned me. My home was missing my two best friends — there was no one there blasting music; the room wasn’t already a mess. I was forced to get ready to conquer my sophomore winter solo. I now have the most luxurious and spacious single on campus, but trying to fill up all the space by myself is going to be, well, a little lonely. The people whose clothes I would borrow, who hated waking up to my obnoxious sonic boom alarm and who enjoyed late night EBAs with me have left Hanover for Barcelona and Paris.
Almost every student will face this pang of loneliness at some point while at Dartmouth. The idiosyncratic D-Plan stretches friendships across the country or even the globe, and it’s even harder to be without those we’re closest to when the Hanover winter makes campus feel especially empty.
Because of the breadth of off-campus and foreign language programs that Dartmouth offers, many students choose to go abroad and explore the world outside of Hanover during the course of their time here. And while the dozens of programs and internship opportunities dazzle on paper, the D-Plan can strain the relationships of even the tightest-knit pairs.
Yet because differing D-Plans tend to affect only the friendships of upperclassmen, freshmen are left relatively unscathed. A member of the Dartmouth Aires, Christopher Gallerani ’15 spent freshman fall wondering about the mystical upperclassman members who were off campus.
“Everyone talks about people who aren’t there in the group as missing them,” Gallerani said. “All the upperclassmen miss them, but I was going through freshman year wondering, ‘Who is this person? What are they like?’”
For most people, including me, the unwanted effects of the College’s academic schedule are first felt during sophomore year. Gallerani and Natalie Shell ’15 are two friends experiencing one of the most extreme examples of the D-Plan’s cruel assault on friendships. After soaking up the sun and spending full days together during sophomore summer, Gallerani and Shell will not see each other for a calendar year due to mismatching plans. At the closing of Camp Dartmouth, Gallerani and Shell looked at each other and wondered with bewilderment what they were going to do during a year of separation.
But fear not, this doesn’t mean friendships are completely dissolved. Emily Brody-Bizar ’15 said that though Dartmouth’s fast-paced quarter system makes finding time to communicate more of a commitment, there are plenty of ways to overcome the distance.
Today’s countless options for staying in touch mean that those who commit to their friendships — be it through Skype or blitz — can conquer the hurdles of the D-Plan. Friends sink into each other’s photo streams, relishing images of the Eiffel Tower or sun-soaked beaches through a Mayfair filter on Instagram.
“If the friendship is important to both of you, then you both will find ways to make it work,” Gallerani said.
Even in this digital era, physically bridging the gap between friends is possible. Many students interning in relatively close cities such as Boston and New York return to the Hanover tundra for Winter Carnival and other big weekends throughout the year. While living abroad, Shell said she was able to do the same, visiting several friends in Edinburgh, Dublin and Glasgow during the course of her foreign study program in London.
In spite of the friends we lose to off terms, the D-Plan may actually have some social benefits. Shell said she made the most of her term without many of her best friends. She remains close with friends she made on campus during sophomore winter, a notorious term for flocking to warmer climates.
Beyond expanding social circles, our alternative schedule forces us to face the ways of the dreaded post-graduation “real world.”
“It gets you prepared or gets you thinking about what it’s like when you leave college,” Gallerani said. “In situations when you switch positions or when you move to a new company, you encounter similar scenarios.”
I’ll leave you with these timeless words of wisdom — stay in touch. Trust me, it will be worth it. It’s hard to get used to two empty beds, but fighting through the hard parts only makes reuniting that much better.
