Dear Class of 2022,
As we write to you during our sophomore summer, we can’t help but be distracted by your soon-to-be freshman fall. Freshman year remains in our memory as a blur of brilliant gold and saffron leaves of a fresh autumn; a radiant Green teeming with energy; and a totally unexplored playground full of new friends, ideas, and challenges. Freshman year remains, in our memory, a constant state of elation, eagerness and endless expectation.
While it’s only been one year, we find ourselves in a vastly different frame of mind. We’ve become accustomed with what was once unknown, what was once foreign to us; we’ve grown familiar with the college on the hill. At times, we long to return to where you will soon be in a few weeks — and in more ways than one, we envy what you will get to experience come September.
In that sense, creating this issue has done a lot for us. It let us relive our earliest Dartmouth moments and recall the memories that we find fondest, but easily forgotten. At times, we found ourselves surprised by how universal some of these moments are with the very friends and peers who made the issue with us.
And indeed, what you’ll find in this issue might be considered universal — nothing that varies too much from a typical freshman issue, at least in topic matter. The main aspects of the Dartmouth college experience don’t vary too wildly over time.
But just because some things do not change doesn’t mean that the ways in which we address them has to remain the same as well. What we strove for in this year’s Freshman Issue — and what we hope you will strive for as you embark on these next four years — is to push the expected to new limits. Don’t settle for what things are “supposed to be like,” and don’t stray from the fire within you that makes you look for more. Take the expected that Dartmouth gives you and make it unfamiliar again.
The greatest thing about being a freshman is having fresh eyes to look at the pillars of Dartmouth in new ways — and having the energy to demand that the expected be pushed to its limit. For this, we envy you wholeheartedly; and for this, we welcome you with anticipation.
Welcome home, ’22s.
With love,
Hyemin and Tyler
