1: Rage.
2: Be exceptionally personable.
3: Don't try to stand out in class.
3.5: Study anyway. In secret.
4: Don't try to stand out in fashion.
4.5: Own a black Northface.
5: Be liberal.
5.5: Abandon any and all true, specific convictions.
6: Be happy.
6.5: Go to Dick's House for counseling anyway.
7: Have a sweet internship. Or three.
At Dartmouth there's a lot of talk of internships. Do something productive with your off-terms make it bigger-and-better-and-more-prestigious-and-higher-paying-and-in-a-cooler-location-and-with-less-generic-work-than-all-of-your-peers. So you can brag about it when you come back to campus. And put it on your resume. And so on.
We were selected because we were varied, so why do so many of us desperately try to genericize once we arrive on campus? Our wardrobes become muted. Our personalities become muted. You get the idea.
But then, so many of us don't fall victim to this groupthink. A pair of lemon yellow galoshes, a foray into classical Mexican dancing, and a speech given from the steps Robo remind me that, despite it all, plenty of us stay quite ourselves.
This summer I'll be working as a camp counselor, kthanxbye.
aAdapted from Daniel O'Brien's article Hello, My Name is Dartmouth in the September 24, 2006 edition of The Dartmouth Independent.
bThese seven shouldn't be taken any more seriously than the other seven. I'm sorry that that needed to be clarified.
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