This article is featured in the 2022 Commencement & Reunions special issue.
To the Class of 2022,
Over the past four years, you have faced numerous and unprecedented changes. In your sophomore spring, you experienced the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that scattered your class across the country and around the world. Following disruptions and disappointments, you returned to campus your senior year and reunited with many of your peers for the first time since the pandemic, but for the last time as a class. Throughout your time at Dartmouth, you showed immense resilience — and the ability to not only adapt, but to learn and grow from each challenge.
Like the Connecticut River that flows beside Dartmouth’s campus, your college experience has been marked by a series of twists and turns, in which you did not always know where you would arrive next. On that note, we took a quote from the poet John O’Donohue as inspiration for this year’s Commencement and Reunions issue: “I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.”
Within this issue, we hope to encapsulate these words that embody your perseverance, cleverness and inventiveness in so many ways. To do so, we have included a look back on the past four years of news and a photo essay, so you may remember and reflect. The Class of 1972 — who celebrate their 50th reunion this year — also offered their advice to you as you enter into this new chapter of life.
Now, as you plan to embark on your next big adventure, you may feel uncertain and confused. Or, you may feel like you know exactly where you’re going. More likely, you’re somewhere in between. While we cannot predict the future, we think these few words from Dr. Seuss (with two extra from us) may be worth taking in:
You’re off to Great Places,
Today is your day!
Your mountain [or river] is waiting,
So … get on your way!
Congratulations, Class of 2022!
Kristin Chapman ’24 and Thomas Lane ’24
Kristin Chapman ’24 is an English major and Spanish minor from Rye, New York. She currently serves as the editor-in-chief and previously wrote and edited for the News section. In her free time, she enjoys reading books, running, hiking and doing yoga.
Thomas Lane '24 is a former Opinion editor.
