What was your most fun experience at Dartmouth?
Nelly Mendoza ’19: It was definitely the snowball fight this past winter. It was my first snowball fight ever, and I had no expectations for what it was going to be like. I just casually decided to go and all of a sudden I was throwing snowballs at strangers and friends, especially if they looked bored or if they were alone.
Joe Kind ’16: Hands down, my freshmen homecoming bonfire experience. Truly incredible.
Carolyn Zhou ’19: Kind of cliche, but when we were marching toward the Green during homecoming. I was living in the River, and we started the march, collecting people as we went along.
Parker Richards ’18: While the printability of some of my more enjoyable Dartmouth experiences is, to be frank, questionable, I believe most of my more enjoyable moments at this College on the Hill have revolved upon the people with whom I have spent time. Even the most absurdly mundane moments have been elevated to extreme enjoyability due to the presence and joie de vivre of friends, acquaintances and passersby, occasional visitors into my experiences here, such as they are. Any sort of trip — even just a walk or jaunt around campus, a walk onto BEMA at midnight or a 1 a.m. trip to EBAs, what have you — can become an amazingly enjoyable experienced based solely upon those around you.
What was your favorite thing to do for fun as a kid?
Leina McDermott ’19: When I was little my best friend had the coolest yard ever and we would play games outside all day. There was a tree house and a trampoline and a swing so it really couldn’t have gotten any better than that.
Nelly Mendoza ’19: I liked playing games on flip phones. Remember those? The pre-downloaded games like Tetris were fun, and I remember I would complete the games in no time and then start from level one again endless times. I have always been competitive, so I used to compete with everyone. Not only on video games but on who was done with the multiplication quizzes first in class. The first to finish the multiplication quizzes was always either me or my childhood crush. It was too romantic; I enjoyed winning and showing him who was the better one in class.
Joe Kind ’16: Anything I could do to get my sister’s attention was fun. I also loved playing soccer.
Carolyn Zhou ’19: This sounds stupid, but the neighborhood kids and I used to have “baking contests” where we would make cakes out of sand/leaves/etc., and I found that to be so entertaining.
Parker Richards ’18: I always enjoyed miniatures of all kind. My father collected model trains, and I frequently participated in the construction of his large HO-scale track in the basement. I painted my own miniatures as well, and, when younger, of course I enjoyed Legos. Still, I’d have to say my favorite thing to do was exploring in the woods behind my house, the 10 acres we owned that my dog Jasper and I could roam through to our contentment. We would also walk down the road to the little brook (I knew it as Mel Brooks, which I only learned, through a zoning map, was incorrect when I was 15; the actual name was Mill Brook) and play in the rushing, flowing waters.
What’s the silliest thing you’ve ever done?
Leina McDermott ’19: The most recent thing that comes to mind is singing “Bang Bang” with a stranger at karaoke night which we followed with an encore of “Love the Way You Lie” (the stranger and I are now friends).
Nelly Mendoza ’19: Two summers ago, I was at the University of Texas at Austin for a debate competition. There I met this one girl that was much younger than me and was really good at prank calling people. So, I tried prank calling a couple of her friends but turns out that I was horrible at this and just laughed as soon as someone would pick up the phone. I did this too many times, too many.
Parker Richards ’18: During AP U.S. History in high school, we were discussing the army of Northern Virginia’s need for more food as its soldiers were starving during the Civil War. I suggested, with complete seriousness, that they simply eat cotton candy as the South had more than its fair share of cotton. That was the moment I learned, through the laughter of my classmates, that cotton candy is not, in fact, made from cotton.
If you had a college, what would your mascot be and why?
Leina McDermott ’19: In high school our mascot was a “rising phoenix” which was the worst because phoenixes plural sounds really dumb, and we also didn’t even have sports teams so it just seemed pretentious. So I think I would make my college’s mascot something a) real and b) able to sound normal plural, like a dog.
Nelly Mendoza ’19: Penguins. Who does not like penguins? They have the most adorable walk, look friendly and happy, have a movie featuring just them, and they are birds except that they cannot fly.
Joe Kind ’16: If I had a college, Kind University, my mascot would probably be either a smile or a hug. Something nice.
