>> Thank you Dean Johnson for that generous introduction.
I look forward to working with you this year.
Greetings to President Hanlon, members of the Board of Trustees, alumni, staff, students,
faculty, and, of course, to the great class of 2017.
[ Applause ]
It's a tremendous pleasure for me to welcome everyone to Dartmouth's 244th academic year.
I'm humbled to share the stage with so many distinguished leaders,
and want to note my presence alongside them as a testament
to Dartmouth's incredible focus on its undergraduates.
That said, I think it's appropriate that I narrow the scope of my remarks to my experience
as a Dartmouth student, and leave the life and leadership advice to the people behind me
who have actually managed to obtain their bachelor's degree.
[Laughter] Seventeen's, welcome.
I've been lucky enough to interact with many of you at the lodge towards the end
of your first year DOC trip, and I must say I am delighted by what I have seen so far.
The smiles you flashed during the dinner shows,
and the games on the Leach Field were infectious.
I witness your optimism in our discussion groups.
And you've demonstrated a refreshing enthusiasm by dancing to "I'm on a Roll,"
despite spending the previous three days trekking through the wilderness.
But even more exciting than the energy I felt
from you during trips are the budding relationships that I see forming here on campus.
Maybe it's senior year nostalgia kicking in, but after participating in trips this year,
I've reflected a lot on what it means to be welcomed to Dartmouth,
and why so many upper classmen dedicate themselves to breathe new life
into the trips program year after year.
So if you'll indulge me for a moment, I have a few stories that I'd like to share
from when I joined the Dartmouth community.
When my mother and my sister, Anna, dropped me off on Robo lawn for my DOC trip,
Anna made a comment about H Crew.
It was something to the effect of, oh, Adrian,
look how ridiculous these students are making themselves look,
so there is no possible way you could feel awkward.
[Laughter] I think my sister severely underestimated my ability to feel awkward,
especially given my distinct inability to dance the "Salty Dog Rag," but at the same time,
her comment crystalized something for me.
Right from the outside of trips.
And that was simply understanding the vast amounts of time and effort that scores
of Dartmouth students were putting in to my arrival, a college.
The shows, the games, the conversations with trip leaders,
began to make me feel incredibly special, and I started to feel like I really belonged.
When I arrived back in Hanover from my trip,
things took pretty inarguably a turn for the worst.
I moved in to my dorm with one of my roommates, Pedro Ortado Ortiz [phonetic],
and we were both incredibly tired from our trips.
Pedro had to wake up early the next day, actually,
to go to international student orientation.
So we went to bed very early.
Now in our dorm in Russell Sage, we have a half bath.
And for some, in explicable reason, when Pedro woke up the next morning,
he had peeled off this piece of tape that the custodial staff put on our door
to prevent it from fully closing.
And I get out of bed about an hour and a half later, long after Pedro had left,
and lazily walked into the bathroom, close the door behind me,
only this time I hear this click.
And I think to myself, this can't be good.
This noise that I've never heard before, this cannot be good.
And I turn around and I quickly realized that on the first day of orientation,
when all I want to do is start making friend, I am utterly
and completely locked in the bathroom.
Panic. I start to look for a way out.
I don't have my phone because I didn't think I needed to bring my phone,
and I notice that the hinges are on the other side of the door, so I can't take them off.
And the worst part is, the doorknob isn't even stuck.
It just keeps spinning.
Like it's mocking me.
[Laughter] And so I don't know if you've ever really looked at the bathroom windows
in Russell Sage, but they are very skinny.
These are some small windows, and keep in mind that I'm on the fourth floor.
The odds are stacked against me.
And on top of it all, there's this bright, red sign in front of the window
that says there is a $1,000 fine for being caught
on the fire escape when there is not a fire.
So I'm hesitant, but after about 15 more seconds of not having any friends,
I decide that this is an emergency.
[Laughter] Somehow, I had psyched myself into thinking that while I was trapped
in the bathroom, all of the other 14's were going to pair up and become friends,
and I would be alone at Dartmouth forever.
[Laughter] Now on a mission, I punched out the screen, shoved about half of my body
through the window, but then the window kind of closes on my abs.
And so at this point, people are starting to pass below me on their way to breakfast,
and I am now not only still not making friends, but now I am that guy who's hanging
out of the fourth floor of his freshman dorm on the first day of orientation.
Eventually I grab hold of the fire escape, pull myself through, and descend down to the ground.
I told this story a lot at the lodge this year.
And that was because I wanted to let 17's know that it's okay if you have a bad day,
or you feel like you're getting off on the wrong foot.
No one honestly expects you to be happy all the time.
At the beginning of my freshman fall, I felt kind of alone.
I didn't know if my relationships were meaningful.
There was no spontaneous dancing, or games on the green,
like there had been on the Leach field.
That sense of belonging that I started
to feel during trips had basically evaporated by that point.
Somebody did, however, save me from the vague sadness that I was feeling at Dartmouth,
and it wasn't a trip leader and it wasn't a crew member, and it wasn't even an upper classman.
It was a 14.
A freshman student named Gina who I met completely, randomly, when I stayed behind
from this group of 14's who were going to FoCo.
So she had time to put on her shoes.
I don't know what compelled her to do this.
I think at some point, I might have told her the Pedro story, and it made her like me.
But Gina, over the next couple days, organized a group of people I knew, but not well,
to set up a surprise scavenger hunt for me across campus to celebrate my birthday.
Three years ago yesterday, I ran around Hanover collecting 19 candles
and a cake from the middle of the green.
The mistakenly purchased trick candles almost set off the fire alarm
in McLaughlin where we went to celebrate.
But the awkward photo I took of us fanning the smoke
out of the room was my desktop for a long time.
And I think I kept it for so long because when I thought my birthday would be completely skipped
over, because I didn't have any real friends, this gesture really made me feel
like I had a family at Dartmouth.
Now not everyone will be lucky enough
to have a Gina throw them an absurdly elaborate scavenger hunt,
but each of you 17's has the power to be that for another person.
When you go out of your way, when you inconvenience yourself,
when you push through the awkwardness of that initial encounter, in order to make one
of your peers feel welcome, then suddenly they are at home at Dartmouth,
because now you're a member of this community.
You are Dartmouth to them.
As I'm sure you've realized, not every minute of your Dartmouth career will be the program song
and dance that you saw during trips.
The reason your peers invested so much in your arrival, in my case, choreography,
lyric writing, and dying my hair, was to convey how eager we were to meet you,
and how thrilled we are to have you here.
But whether that sense of community persists depends entirely on the actions that you take
to let the people around you know that you care about them.
Seventeen's, college life will push you in a lot of different directions.
There is no better anchor out there then people who you love and trust.
So do me a personal favor.
Get to know your classmates.
Make an effort to be kind to them.
And when you do, I look forward to watching you thrive here.
On behalf of the student body, 17's, welcome home.
[ Applause ]