These past few months, I could feel that perceptible void in my life. Yes, I was still working hard while on the exchange program; I was living it up in Paris and visiting some exotic locales as I could find time; I was meeting new people on the exchange program, etc. But I could tell something was not complete. There wasn’t a sense of belonging; there wasn’t a sense of being overwhelmed by responsibilities. I was a visitor finding my way around, and figuring things out. It was quite different then.
And then the time came to fly back to the US, to pick up the strings where I had left them more than seven months prior, and get back into the thick of things – friends, clubs, fellowships, academics, first year students… The sense of responsibility came back instantaneously. For the first time in all these months, I would actually be taking up the mantle of a second year student.
Catching up with my classmates was a pleasure – the familiar chats, faces, smiles, and energy that so make you feel at home – the “I-am-back” feeling, back to getting involved in multifarious activities. I was looking forward to meeting as many of the first year students as possible. When classes actually started, I realized I was a stranger amongst the 250+ first year students. I hardly knew anyone and hardly anyone knew me. And so I started reaching out and getting to know some of them (had lunch with a big group just yesterday).
It’s going to take some effort on my part to get to know them. Even then, odds are I won’t get to know quite a few of them. But that’s OK, since all it takes to get to know any generation of Tuckies is simply by announcing that you are one yourself. There’s a common thread that connects us all, the indelible mark that we all have come to know and love, the lone voice in the wilderness called Dartmouth, and its school of business that is so different from the rest of its peers, the one we all call Tuck. It sure is fun to be back!
Read the full article: In the thick of things