Cindy Shen

Don't join an organization simply because it's a resume-builder... take that time to get really involved in something you actually love. You might even find that the things you're passionate about can become even better resume-builders.

Failing one exam won't ruin your life. I promise! Take a deep breath and study better (not neccessarily harder) for the next one. In the meantime, take some time to yourself or some close friends to destress and have fun. 

(Pictured) A few of my closest friends at Dartmouth. On my birthday, they blindfolded me and guided me down to Connecticut River for a surprise picnic.

Spending a little amount of time with a lot of people doesn't pay off anywhere close to spending a lot of time with a few people. 

There's nothing better than greeting doggos on campus! Residents love to bring their dogs to campus because they get lots of attention from students like me. This beautiful boy was playing frisbee on the Green when I met him. 

I ran into my friend Hayley on the way back to the River (our lovely, albeit faraway, home). Because Dartmouth is a small, tightknit community, you'll run into friends all the time! 

I've passed Dartmouth's climbing gym almost every day this year without even knowing it existed. One of my friends goes there all the time and took me with her at the beginning of this term; she now takes me with her at least once a week. It's free your fall term, btw!

From post-practice dinners to long bus and plane rides to tournaments, I have spent so much time and share so many memories with my teammates that it's almost impossible not to get close. Of the three of my closest friends on campus, two of them are on the fencing team. (One of whom is pictured above)

This is a pretty obvious benefit to joining any club sport, but fencing is one of the most competitive club sports on campus, so we have a training schedule that has been compared to some varsity teams (upwards of 10 hours/week + weekend competitions). A fellow teammate told me that she actually lost 15 pounds over the course of this year.

Fencing is probably a sport you've never thought about doing... Which is great! Because college is the time to try new things. About half of our competition squad consists of people that have never fenced before college, many of whom are freshmen.