Greetings from the woods! My name is Gavin Fry, and I'm a student blogger with the People, Places, and Pines team. I'm a proud first-generation college student, carrying with me the full support of my crazy family. I plan to be involved with undergraduate research, outdoor activities, and club golf here at Dartmouth! You can find me geeking out about the weather, reading novels, and always drinking coffee (at any time of the day). So nice to meet you!
Academic Program
Prospective Environmental Earth Science Major with a Minor in Public Policy
Favorite Thing Right Now
My idea of starting a chapter of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) here at Dartmouth!
Oh. My. Goodness. What a fun class this was! As a certified weather and climate geek, I was totally entrenched in everything we done in this course. From the labs and weather presentations to the "flipped" classroom experience, I thoroughly enjoyed this class. Dr. Osterberg's excitement for the course material made it that much more enjoyable! It was truly an extraordinary first-year course to take.
I’ve loved this class from beginning to end. For one, I enjoyed it because of the people in it, but I also loved it because of the content. Through frequent class discussion, I learned about the health of our democracy and the ways it is compromised. Very enlightening class!
Religion 5 was a quintessential liberal arts course that deepened my knowledge in a subject I thought I had all figured out. As a STEM-oriented student, this class offered the perfect balance to my spring term schedule. As a result of this class, I became more introspective of how I was raised, and I'm more grateful in my ability to be a free-thinker.
SummerOff Campus Internship - Princeton, New Jersey
This summer, I explored my future career plans by participating in a research internship with the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton University. I learned a lot about what I want (and what I don't want) in a future career, and I made so many awesome lifelong connections!
A course rooted in both philosophical theory and real, practical methods of becoming a better public speaker was the highlight of the term. Our class of 16 students grew to be a sort of "mini-family," and I'm so grateful for the connections I made. I completely changed the way I view public speaking and homed in on my own skills as a public speaker!
Once again, a course outside my major found its way into my favorite class list. This sociology course helped me better understand how children are viewed in society, the way sociologists study youth, and the major differences in norms around childhood around the world. Who knew there was so much to learn about youth culture!
I've examined the ideas in this post through a few different lenses since I started writing this blog a year and a half ago, but I want to emphasize this: your time at Dartmouth will go by lickity split. Sometimes it feels like you're just whizzing through life and one day you wake up and say, "wait a minute…. how did I get here?" It's easy to get caught up in the intricacies of college life – especially grades, your social life, and extracurricular activities. I must admit, I've always been a sort of "pick yourself up and dust yourself off" kind of person, meaning that you just push through the difficult times and get ready for the next one. I don't think this is particularly useful in college, and I think there is a much better way to keep your mental health in check. Self-reflection has been immensely beneficial for me during my time at Dartmouth. It helps put things in perspective and ground you, and it's a skill I've learned over time.
Pictured above is my favorite place on campus – an area just beyond the Shattuck observatory where you get the most picturesque view of campus. There are trees all around, sunlight glistening through the branches as the day softens into the night. It's the most beautiful picture I could ever imagine on a college campus, and it's the perfect place for me to self-reflect. Lately, I've tried to go here on the weekends to write in my journal and reflect after a long week. I think about the good and the bad things that happened, acknowledging how I did the best I could on an assignment and remembering all the things I've done to get to where I am today. I sit on a small boulder as I listen to the crows behind me in the forest. Then, I remember just how beautiful and simple life is, or, at least, should be. Whenever I get stressed over the "little" things in life, I go to this place to remind myself that it's all going to be okay.
As I stand up, I listen to the wet snow wither beneath my feet, and I stroll back down towards campus with the reassured confidence that I'm a kindhearted, loving person who deserves to be happy in life. I remind myself of these things because I've found it very easy to get bogged down in all of the self-imposed ideals I've put on myself since I started college. Often times I find myself stressed over things that I've over emphasized, and it's useful to remind myself that, at the end of the day, the most important thing is for me to be healthy and happy; nothing else goes above those things. Self-reflection is a way to keep yourself in check during times where life seems to fly right past you. It allows you to stop, contemplate, and restart your mind. I challenge you to find your place as I've found mine because it's truly powerful. Self-reflection is a skill I've learned over time, and it's something I truly hope you take seriously!
In addition to blogging, I work as a Fellow for the Tucker Center, which focuses on promoting spiritual and ethical life on campus. As part of this role, I'm leading the Interfaith Alternative Spring Break Trip. Read on to learn more about my work!
