This week, like any week that I am tasked with writing the editor’s note, I’ve been looking for meaning in everything. Every third Tuesday is a game of how fast I can imbue an anecdote with importance, all while keeping one eye on a PDF I’m reading for my government seminar, the other on incoming edits for the week’s articles and my mind anywhere but the second floor of Robinson Hall.
By now, I’ve prayed to the gods of inspiration for the ability to make some metaphor out of the doubly absurd and ordinary events of my week.
“To whom this may concern, can you please help me find significance in the fact that I was served the wrong tea at Pine today? Perhaps you could tell me the lessons I’ve learned from struggling with my landlord? Or maybe you could give me some original insight into the German expressionist films I’ve been watching for class?”
Unfortunately, it’s 6 p.m. and those prayers have yet to be answered. Maybe one of these weeks, I’ll finally get lucky.
So, instead of guiding you through a long-winded anecdote, this week, we are stuck with the facts. And, the facts are this: two people I knew in middle school got engaged yesterday, Dartmouth is 13 days away from the end of fall term, I will only take six more classes before I graduate and tomorrow, I will turn 22.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, all of these observations have to do with the passage of time. Reflecting on such a subject at this point in the year is low-hanging fruit, and maybe, for once, I’ll take it. As fall term dwindles, I know most seniors — friends, peers and personas non grata — are reflecting on how they’ve changed during their time in college and what has resulted from their experience.
Like always, I’m no exception to the rule. I, too, voluntarily and involuntarily reminisce. Yet, I don’t think the change people speak about is as earth-shattering as it's cracked up to be.
Last week, I got my first official post-graduation job offer, but I also still listen to the same albums that I played on repeat when I was 12. Although the scenery has changed from my best friend’s dorm on the first floor of the Choates to the second-hand couch in my dilapidated townhouse, I continue to hang out with some of the same people I met during my first few weeks of college, deliberating the same subjects we’ve already argued to death 10 times over. I’ve switched my major several times and donated most of my going-out tops from my freshman year, but I still get a gin and tonic with Tanqueray when I don’t know what I want to sip on at the bar — because it was the reliable drink my mom sent me off to college with.
So, yes, of course you’re different in more ways than you can count. But you’re also not. Plenty of major life events come and go, and nothing about you might change, but then the smallest things could cause you to bring your life into question. Even then, you do not have to come out on the other side of something — like four years of college — completely and utterly different for it to have mattered.
For our last week at Mirror this term, we made sure to pack a punch. One writer explores the reasons why Dartmouth students pursue law school, and an exchange student reflects on the end of her time at Dartmouth this fall. Another writer interviews students who were impacted by this year's hurricanes. We also have a new installation of the Weekenders column that takes us to Burlington, Vt. And, finally, one writer talks to members of the Class of 2024 who have stuck around Dartmouth to pursue the College’s postgraduate fellowships and employment opportunities.
Although Mirror has seen me through many things, I doubt I will have changed enough by winter term to finally learn how to write my editor’s note in a timely manner. See you then.
