Welcome to the (virtual) woods! My name is Natalie and I'm a '25 from Oakland, California (3035 miles away from Dartmouth)! I'm a political science and crossword puzzle nerd who's excited to dive into the millions of activities we have on campus. I'm a Politics, Philosophy, and Economics major at Dartmouth, and am considering both a History and Human-Centered Design minor. I'm also the President of the Parliamentary Debate team! Go Big Green!
Hi everyone! We're officially nearing the end of Dartmouth's infamously fast 10-week term! Things are picking up pace around here, and admittedly, it can be pretty easy to get overwhelmed with all the academic, extracurricular, and social obligations on our plate!
I can't tell you how to avoid feeling overwhelmed, as I'm still working on that myself, but I can tell you a piece of advice that's helped me along the way: Saturday Mornings Are Sacred (SMAS).
Whether you're into the party scene or not, it's pretty typical for Dartmouth students to be out late on Friday nights. Energy is high after a focused academic week, and people socialize (in many ways) late into the night. As a result, the campus is usually buzzing well past midnight.
Because of late Friday nights, there's usually not a ton of time to recover from the week on Fridays, and with the workload Dartmouth students carry, it's typical to do homework all day Sunday. That's where Saturday mornings being sacred comes into play.
The idea of SMAS is simple. You don't work on Saturday morning. You keep your laptop closed, you ignore your planner, and you schedule no meetings. Instead, you sleep in, relax, and do what's necessary for you to recharge after a tough week.
Last Saturday, my roommate and I enjoyed the fall sunshine and took a walk through Pine Park and around Occum pond, chatting and enjoying some quality time. The foliage season is starting to end (sad!), so we wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather while we could.
The view from Occom Pond!
Today, my friend Mia and I walked into downtown Hanover to Umpleby's bakery and split a chocolate-almond croissant. Then, we sat outside on the patio and chatted for almost two hours, just grateful for the opportunity to catch up and eat breakfast outside of the dining hall.
Mia and I at Umpleby's!
On our way back through Hanover, we poked our heads into a few different boutiques in town — the shops here are so adorable. One of the nice things about shopping in Hanover is that most stores offer a discount, especially for Dartmouth students! For example, at J.Crew, you get 15% off every purchase just by showing your Dartmouth ID.
So take it from me — Saturday mornings are sacred, whether you're in college, high school, or the workforce. So put away your homework, take a walk, get a yummy breakfast, read a book just for fun, do some shopping, or whatever will make your heart happy. The work will be there when you get back. And you'll be in a better headspace to tackle it.
I realised many of my posts relate to different parts of my identity: being multiracial, being Latino, being queer, and much more. But here, I seem to have never talked about being Christian!
One of the main reasons I applied to Dartmouth was its vast range of study abroad programs in various departments and in different countries across the globe.
