A few days ago, I decided that I would write this week’s Editor’s Note about trying to slow down and pay more attention to my surroundings. Mere hours ago, I was out on a run and, in a cruel display of irony, my advice came back to haunt me. For a moment, I stopped paying attention to the road beneath my feet and started mentally cataloging my to-do list. I promptly tripped and scraped my knee, hand and elbow, leaving me to run the last mile back to campus covered in blood and extremely upset.
This inadvertent stumble exemplifies how the start of the term has made me feel. After spending the summer in Washington, D.C., returning to the quarter system feels jarring. In D.C., my only true commitment was my internship, and I felt like I had nothing but free time — I discussed Nepal and the Peace Corps at brunch, spent an entire afternoon in the National Gallery of Art, saw theater at the Kennedy Center and went for long, leisurely runs around The Watergate Hotel and the National Mall.
A term at Dartmouth, on the other hand, sometimes reminds me of a cross country race. The end of the term is the finish line — as the weeks tick by, there’s no option other than holding on and channeling my remaining energy into a dead sprint. We’re less than two weeks into this term, and I’m already overwhelmed by the number of emails in my inbox demanding my attention. Two days ago, I microwaved soup for dinner because I was running late and didn’t have enough time to turn on the stove. The beginning of senior year, too, has only compounded this feeling. This is my last fall in Hanover, and I want to make it count — but already, trees are starting to shed their leaves, a constant reminder of how fast each day flies by.
Lest my final year pass me by when I’m not paying attention, I’ve decided to spend this year trying to slow down. I want to try to spend less mental energy on the assignments and applications hanging over my head and more time observing the Upper Valley — like the three white-tailed deer I saw running across Maple Street a few nights ago. Last week, walking past our dining hall, I saw a porcupine waddling past — I didn’t even know porcupines lived in the Upper Valley. I was on a run last week and spent a few miles running in silence, no cars in sight, listening only to the wind whistling along River Road and the Connecticut River flowing beside me. Since arriving on campus for the term, I’ve visited towns across New Hampshire, seen my first Telluride at Dartmouth film and run on roads that I previously didn’t know existed — including the road I tripped on earlier today.
When I walk across the stage at graduation, I hope I’ll feel as though I wasn’t merely slammed by the waves of the quarter system. Instead, I want to experience the Upper Valley in full, rather than just hitting the highlights in between other obligations and deadlines.
This week in Mirror, one writer introduces a new column — Weekenders — that gathers recommendations for weekend trips to the cities most frequented by Dartmouth students. In our first edition, we spotlight Boston. Another writer investigates student reactions to the ongoing construction on campus, while a third dives deep on the political engagement of students who aren’t studying government or involved in political extracurriculars.
Happy week 2, Mirror — I hope that your day involved fewer scrapes than mine. As the leaves continue to change and the chill in the air only grows stronger, take the time to experience fall in Hanover, whether it’s your first or your last. Go to a corn maze, watch the leaves drift to the ground outside your window or spend a few moments turning the pages of our latest issue. See you next week.
