Editorial: On the Decrescendo of Spring Term

As the final exams of spring term come to a close across the (sometimes) green expanse that is Dartmouth, a palpable shift takes hold. The crisp morning air, once biting with winter’s chill, now carries the sweet scent of fresh blooms. Suddenly, the slushy snow of mud season has transformed into havens for picnics, frisbee and spike ball sessions that stretch long into the evening. Impromptu hikes, dips into the river and strolls through Pine Park are met with conviviality and leisure. 

Rather than being cooped up in the library, students can frequently be found sprawled on the Green with a hoard of friends, absorbing their readings as well as the sunshine. 

The frenzied pace of academic life gives way to fleeting moments of laid-back time in the great outdoors, happily swapping out their worn-out Blundstones for worn-out Birkenstocks. 

For however brief, the freedom beckons—even if just for an hour’s respite from the burdensome expectations that so often blanket campus. As the whirlwind of spring gives way to summer, a peculiar nostalgia follows. Make no mistake, there is an uncanny thrill to entering this next phase. Enduring three years battling through the relentless grind of a ten week term, the malnutrition that comes inherent to dining at DDS, and forty-below wind chills, surely we’ve earned the right to a victory lap of sorts. 

This summer stretches ahead like a blank canvas—primed for adventures, internships, and everything in between.

However, this excitement is quickly muted once reality sets in. This is, indeed, one’s last precious taste of true collegiate freedom before inescapable adulthoodcome crashing in. Those carefree freshman days of skipping class to indulge in brunch at Lou’s seem lightyears away now. 

For those lucky few staying in the idyllic Hanover bubble for the summer, the changing of the guard is striking. After two years of being looked down upon by the ever-present upperclassmen elite, suddenly the sophomore class will be the proverbial big fish in Occom Pond. With every other class largely cleared out, there will be no lines for the Collis special, no jockeying to snag a spot by the river, and no freshman asking asinine questions in your seminar. Sophomores can lord about as campus royalty for one shining summer.

However, for those upperclassmen leaving behind the humid New Hampshire summer in favor of the concrete heat of the city, there’s an unavoidable comedown from the high of being the big man on campus. 

Instead, they face the reality of a hierarchy worse than any Greek house could bestow—the hierarchy of the corporate world. What’s one to do when their time at Camp Dartmouth comes to an abrupt halt? 

With what time you have left in your collegiate experience, I entreat you to spend it doing exactly what you want to. 

Road trip with your friends, go to the beach, paint that pong table you’ve been keeping in the garage, and, yes, think of your future. 

Undertake this last endeavor not with fear, but with the same sort of joy that a sophomore approaches their fated Sophomore Summer with. It is, after all, exactly what you make of it. Strive for that elusive balance we so proudly call “the Dartmouth difference.” Soak up the freedom of the summer days while embracing what’s to come. 

Fall will arrive soon enough, and once the haunting reality of impending adulthood sets in, these carefree summer days will feel like a bittersweet memory.