by Zeph Phillips (Date 08/25/2010)

How can I sum up my experience at Dartmouth? Well, how do you sum up something that completely changes your idea of what getting an education should be? When I was given the assignment to write about my feelings and comments of the past semester at UMass Dartmouth by Andre Wagner, I thought, “Well that’s oddly vague for a German” But in that strange German nature, as abstract as the order was it was directly to the point.

We all had different expectations for our first semester as members of TraDIS. Was I expecting a parade as I arrived to my dorm, welcoming me to their school? Of course not, but the air on the day of my arrival left a bitter taste in my mouth. Was it the taste of anxiety or excitement is something I have yet to determine. As I arrived to campus, I knew that TraDIS students and a few other students would be on campus. Every student I walked past very well might have been the student I would spend the next two years with. Common pleasantries and introductions masked my sigh of relief as I finally found “my” group on the giant campus. The most unnerving days at Dartmouth where those spent without school work. I always took comfort in doing reports and completing menial tasks to ace a test, but the vast amount of leisure time I completely underestimated. Luckily, the first couple weeks were filled with administrative duties left to the TraDIS student to keep busy. It seemed to me as if we were just picking up pieces left to us by different groups amongst our schools due to insufficient communication. The existence of me as a student was questioned by every single office I walked in to.

I firmly believe that the giant jigsaw puzzle that was the TraDIS program wouldn’t have been completed without the support and patience of the excellent UMass Dartmouth administration. As soon as I was able to fully concentrate on studies and get into a routine, I forgot that I was spending just a brief stint at Dartmouth. Dartmouth for those months was my home. Where I had the patience for the administration as they tried to figure out exactly what I was doing there, I did not have the same patience for the Dartmouth students. People always envision a time where impressions were something left to those with the time to bother. In Boston, I thought the people I met there were the people I would carry through my four years at school. When I found out that I would be traveling from school to school each semester until I graduated, I realized had little time for impressions. As a member on the TraDIS group, I was different in my feigned interest in our classmates. Other than the Dartmouth students in our group, I would probably never see any of these students again. I couldn’t decide if I just wanted more time at Dartmouth to get to know the students, or was it just a general dislike for the student body.

Of course, I always had “my” group—my fellow TraDIS members whose faces I saw every morning in Pinedale Lobby, a constant and warming reminder for my reason at Dartmouth. As the semester flew by, this constant reminder was very important to me; not only to keep my interests in the program at a whole but to keep my spirits up at Dartmouth. Oddly enough, my apathy towards other students at Dartmouth dwindled as my time ceased on campus. As hard as you try to fight it, the natural charm of the student body at Dartmouth is what draws you in. While I had many more semesters to spend with my TraDIS friends, the friends made at Dartmouth are sadly those whom are just etched in time. A quarter of the way done and I feel as if my entire outlook has changed on education. Education has always been something handed down to me. As I excelled in my studies, it was just natural to continue on.

Not only was I expected to continue with my studies but it was what my fellow classmates were doing. Dartmouth was the complete opposite. We were seemingly dropped at Dartmouth where we had to cultivate our own educational experience. No student on campus was like us, most were pursuing a degree there while this was just a stepping stone for us. Sure, the classes were informative but the greatest lesson for me was that I had to get out and grab me education and push through my own desire to better myself. I knew going in the TraDIS program was a truly one of a kind experience but little did I know that I would be feeling its uniqueness a quarter of the way through.