Green Key!
When I arrived my freshman fall at Dartmouth, I kept hearing about Green Key. Upperclassmen would tell me that it was possibly their favorite experience in freshman year, and that I should look forward to it. Some told me they truly started loving their time at Dartmouth when they experienced their first Green Key. And having gone through it for a weekend, I decided to talk about my experience to all of you.
Green Key is a spring term event that happens towards the end of the term, to signal the arrival of the spring season. It's a lot of things — parties, a break from work, a music festival, an excuse to dress up in your coolest clothes — rolled into one, but it's also an opportunity to get to know so many new people and explore Dartmouth's community in ways you couldn't before.
For our musical guest this year, we had Neon Trees and Cochise. Neon Trees are known for their hit songs "Animal" and "Everybody Talks," and they did not disappoint! The concert was spread from the beginning to the end of Gold Coast Drive, which is on Tuck Mall (where Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business is!). From the start to the end of the street, there was a sea of students, all super excited to dance and sing along with their friends. It was absolutely brilliant.
Throughout the day, there were 'darties' (day parties) held by different Greek houses that you could attend, which spilled later into the night. On Saturday, there was a similar structure except there was no big concert at the end of the night. I think the one thing that stood out to me as really cool during Green Key was how comfortable everyone was being themselves and going all out.
Everyone wore super cool outfits which represented their own creativity, and had a blast with their friends, taking a momentary pause from the immense workload and all the midterm/final stress that comes from Week 8. It felt like a little pause from all the rush of college and just a little relaxing break.
Also — Saturday turned into an impromptu rain party when the rains came pouring down on Hanover, but that honestly made it even more fun! We might have been shivering and contracting some form of hypothermia in the rain, but at least we had an absolutely fantastic time doing it.
On the Sunday of Green Key, I went in a car with my friends all the way to Boston for a concert — which honestly, is the perfect end to Green Key weekend, so I'm not complaining!