Don’t wait. This is your life. And your 20s is the best time to try. Fail. Experience. Live. That doesn’t mean don’t plan. But find the balance. And make memories.
—TODD PIRO ’00
Reporter, Fox News
New York City
Government major
Know your values. Make choices consistent with them. Values, when practiced, become virtues, and your virtues become your legacy.
—MARY FLOUNDERS GREEN ’88, TU’95
Asset management and communications executive
Stamford, Connecticut
Chinese Language and Asian Studies
Practice pragmatic idealism. Have an open mind to opportunities that will inevitably occur. Develop a sense of perspective. Idealistic for perhaps too long, I now accept that people’s appetites have not changed in thousands of years. To quote astronaut John Young, “Single-planet species do not survive.” We need to become a space-faring species to ensure our survival. Earth will always be a special place, but if it remains our only place, we have no long-term future. Please help us to have a future.
—JAMES NEWMAN ’78
NASA astronaut and educator, Naval Postgraduate School
Pacific Grove, California
Physics
Prestige and money are never sustainable motivations. To build a long, fulfilling career, strive for something more—a grand mission, a profound impact—so you can bring both your brains and your heart to work.
—QIAN ZHANG ’13
M.B.A. student
Boston
Mathematics and Economics
Don’t be too eager to put down roots in a city or at a job. When opportunities come your way— and they will—you won’t want to be encumbered with more than a carful of belongings, a lease you can’t get out of, or a promise you made to stay. Be ready to move, and move as often as opportunities arise. Otherwise you won’t know where you truly want to be.
—SVATI NARULA ’13
Associate social media editor, Outside magazine
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Government
My advice comes straight from our own Dr. Seuss: “Don’t worry. Don’t stew. Just go right along— you’ll start happening too!” This is the best moment in your lives for adventure and experimentation. When you return to the race, the risk-takers and storytellers will stand out.
—MARIYA ROSBERG ’96
Partner, financial services, Oliver Wyman
Pound Ridge, New York
History
Don’t be afraid to fail. I learned the most about my self in times of struggle—you will emerge stronger and smarter.
—GILLIAN APPS ’06, TU’19
Olympic gold medalist (ice hockey)
Hanover
Psychology and Brain Sciences
To be creative in what you do, here are thoughts that have worked for me: You probably won’t be successful creating new ideas on your own. Start or be a part of teams of five or fewer people. To make teams’efforts more effective, have members start each sentence with the words “What happens if... ?” When the team has landed on a new idea, don’t chat about it, start to immediately make a model.
—REYN GUYER ’57
Inventor of NERF ball and Twister
Boca Grande, Florida
English
I love the instructions in Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese”: “You do not have to be good./You do not have to walk on your knees/ for a hundred miles through the desert repenting./You only have to let the soft animal of your body/love what it loves.” You don’t have to do everything well or even be happy. You are already enough, just as you are. Now you need only ask yourself: What would be fun for me to do next? What would be meaningful? What am I still curious about? “The world offers itself to your imagination,/calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting.”
—CHRISTINE CARTER ’94
Author of Raising Happiness and The Sweet Spot: How to Accomplish More by Doing Less
Marin County, California
Senior Fellow
You are already on the ascending path to personal success. The key to reaching your ultimate goal will ultimately be determined by the way you recover from life’s unavoidable stumbles on the way to reaching that goal.
—LEWIS M. EISENBERG ’64
U.S. Ambassador to Italy
Rome
Sociology
Whichever path you take, commit to reflection. Journal when you have a chance. Consider the shape of your story: Where you have been, where you are, where you aspire to go. Ask yourself questions that are challenging and perhaps unanswerable. Consider who you are becoming. What does a purposeful life look life? What do you hope to contribute? Pursue inner peace, genuine love, and continual growth.
—TYNE FREEMAN ’17, ADV’19
Senior Fellow in Music
Upon graduating from an institution such as Dartmouth, one might be tempted to think oneself as superior to the rest of humanity. My own life teaches me if I’ve gained anything from my education on the Hanover Plain it’s how to be plain myself There is tremendous freedom and joy in claiming one’s own mere adequacy. If you learn to say, with integrity, the words of Armand Gamache from a Louise Penny novel, “I was wrong. I am sorry. I don’t know. I need help,” you will be forever truly green; that is, fully alive.
—ROB HIRSCHFELD ’83
Bishop, Episcopal Church of New Hampshire
Concord, New Hampshire
English
There may be times you slog through work that doesn’t speak to you in order to serve long-term objectives. But that’s no way to spend years or, even worse, decades. Life is too short. It’s great to have goals, but you have to be fulfilled by your life along the way. The best path from here to your aspirations may not follow a straight line.
—BETH ROBINSON ’86
Associate justice, Vermont Supreme Court
Ferrisburgh, Vermont
Philosophy and Government
My advice to the class of 2019 is the same as the advice my father shared with me when I left home to go to Dartmouth. “Learn from the mistakes of others, because you won’t live long enough to make them all yourself,” he said. Oh, and love humanity in all its many manifestations.
—REGGIE WILLIAMS ’76
Former linebacker, Cincinnati Bengals
Sarasota, Florida
Psychology
Click here for additional Words of Wisdom from more alums.
