Your freshman year at Dartmouth has a special kind of glow. There will be moments in which it feels like the best time of your life — when you make friends with people from all across the country, when you experience the magic of four distinct seasons, when you uncover opportunities for learning whose existence you never fathomed. Dizzy with thoughts of friends from places like Taiwan and North Dakota, jewel-colored leaves and classes on everything from human-centered design to catastrophe and human survival and the ethics of reproduction, you will at times lose your breath to wonder.
Freshman year will also feel like the most difficult time of your life. It is when you leave your home behind to come to a place where almost everyone is a stranger, it is when you are exposed to academic challenges you never thought possible and it is when you are tasked with finding your place at Dartmouth, whatever that means and wherever that might be. Faced with lonely lunches and overwhelming options and the empty space where your friends and loved ones from home should stand, you will at times feel lost.
We hope that in reading the Class of 2022 freshman edition of The Mirror, you will feel prepared for these breath-taking highs and soul-crushing lows. And we want you to know that those feelings don’t necessarily end after freshman year: Dartmouth has its ups and downs for any student, regardless of their background, class year or projected image. We urge you to remember that everyone at Dartmouth has gone through the same year of highs and lows that you’re about to experience. We remember what it was like. We are here to help you whenever Dartmouth feels overwhelming, and we are here to cheer for you whenever it feels like a gift. We can’t wait to meet you, Class of 2022. Welcome to Dartmouth!
Sincerely,
Eliza Jane Schaeffer and Kylee Sibilia
