2020

2020

As this issue of the magazine looks toward spring, this column will do the same. I am privileged to hand this Class Notes over to Luke Bienstock for our firstever guest column! In it he documents a newfound appreciation for the New Hampshire wilderness we know, love, and miss as senior spring came to a close. Enjoy!

Hi, ’20s! As I’m writing this at the end of 2020, I’ve been thinking back on two main things from this year: graduating from Dartmouth and adapting to the changes around me. I wasn’t sure what to write for the guest column when a friend suggested describing how the outdoors influenced my time at Dartmouth. That idea broke my writer’s block.

At the end of the winter quarter I remember realizing that my senior spring rugby season would be canceled. The disappointment I felt was overwhelming, as I was looking forward to the spring tour in Louisiana and competing at nationals. The outlook of spending the upcoming quarter in isolation in my off-campus apartment in Hanover was depressing. I momentarily found solace in the idea of skiing at the mountains, where I had a season pass, but that was lost when they all shut down.

Driving up to Hanover I couldn’t imagine that I would spend my last few months at Dartmouth in front of a computer. I decided to focus my free time on getting in peak physical condition for Navy officer candidate school, which I will be attending this February. I started to go on long runs in the area, which I hadn’t done at school before as most of my time had been spent training at the rugby pitch. That’s when I discovered the wealth of outdoor opportunities that were hiding in plain sight. I quickly got into trail running, hiking, and backcountry skiing.

During spring term I discovered the larger community outside the Dartmouth bubble. I started running in the trails along the Connecticut River, frequently hiking hills in the Upper Valley, and trekking empty ski hills in the area to ski down became daily activities. I began going to the Norwich, Vermont, farmer’s market after running by one morning and ordering from places outside of campus on my way back from hikes.

While the pandemic closed the door on my rugby season, it opened another one to the New Hampshire outdoors around me. That spring I tried to fit more than three years of outdoor activities into one quarter to make up for the time that I hadn’t been able to take advantage of it. My highlights that spring were staring down Franconia Ridge from the peak of Mount Lafayette, skiing down the steep face of Profanity Chute on Mount Mansfield, and seeing the Atlantic Ocean from the top of Mount Washington. I hiked Mount Washington the day before I left campus that spring—I find it fitting that I started my four years at Dartmouth on the peak of one mountain, Mount Moosilauke, during trips, and finished it on another.

While so much of my identity at Dartmouth was connected to rugby, I’ve loved finding a new athletic outlet that I will continue in the Navy. While I’m sad to have not been with friends and playing rugby during my last quarter in Hanover, the flexible online class schedule opened up opportunities for new experiences that I wouldn’t have had the time for otherwise. The outdoors was only a small part of my Dartmouth experience, but the lessons I’ve learned from exploring them have left a lasting impact on me. As I move onwards, viewing the unknown as an exciting opportunity to learn and grow will doubtless help me adapt to my new phase of life after Dartmouth.

—Katie Goldstein, 263 W'Santa Inez, Hillsborough, CA 94010; katie.e.goldstein.20@dartmouth.edu

Katie Goldstein