When I look back on the four years I spent as a student at Bowdoin, I will remember them fondly. I arrived here as a seventeen-year-old student who had not been to school in America since fourth grade.
I had heard crazy stories about college partying and expected to be challenged academically more than I ever had been, but the truth is I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Going to Bowdoin is so much cooler than I thought it was.
When I think back to each year, I'm struck by how unique each experience was. Freshman year, I was thrown into Moore Hall with fifty other kids, many of whom became my closest friends. I roomed with three varsity athletes, and learned what it meant to be a Bowdoin bro. They worked extremely hard and had packed schedules, but they definitely knew how to have a good time.
I ate at Moulton for almost every meal, largely because it was a twenty-second walk from my room, and signed up for more activities than I could have possibly had time for. I thought about playing volleyball, joining crew, or singing in an a capella group. I ended up writing for the Orient, both as a columnist and a beat writer for the sports section.
Sophomore year, I moved into Reed House. My housemates and I were incredibly enthusiastic, and our president, who campaigned on the platform of being the first house member to turn twenty-one, promised to make Reed the best College House on campus.
We destroyed our speakers during our first party, and bonded by singing "Hey Jude" at the top of our lungs, something that became a sort of tradition.
I didn't know everyone before moving in, but formed friendships with all of my housemates that helped shape the rest of my Bowdoin experience. A large contingent of my housemates played ultimate Frisbee, a sport I knew little about until I began spending inordinate amounts of time with people who played it. I joined the team towards the end of that year and have come to love the sport and the team, an unusually talented and eclectic group of personalities brought together by a passion for playing ultimate.
After returning from a semester abroad in Italy, I suffered through the unpleasant experience of moving into a dorm in the middle of a Maine winter.
I lived with one of my best friends from Reed House and a student who I knew only as my editor at the Orient. Fortunately, we all got along, but Bowdoin felt decidedly different.
I barely recognized a huge chunk of the student body and had to readjust to life on a small campus after living in an apartment in a relatively large, urban city.
My friends faced similar transitions as they returned from semesters abroad, and we were forced to come to terms with the fact that we no longer lived in a house with an awesome basement that we could use whenever we felt like it. We were now upperclassmen, scattered in apartments across campus. This made making dinner plans more of a chore, but encouraged us to branch out.
Senior year, I was thrilled to be living with a number of my close friends and excited about the prospects of calling Coles Tower home—no more slogging through snow in the dead of winter to get brunch!
Though I never expected it, senior year proved that making new friendships at Bowdoin is always possible. Our best friends may be the students we lived with freshman year, but that doesn't stop us from making new connections and expanding our friend groups.
Though Bowdoin is a small school in a small town, it hasn't come close to getting old. Every semester is different and exciting in its own way, but through all the change, Bowdoin has become more than a school to its students. For many seniors, it's been home the past four years. It will be difficult to leave, and some of us are definitely still in denial—myself included—but our college experience is almost over.
When we try to remember what made this place so special, we need only to look at each other.
I'm excited about what the future holds, but I will never forget the special memories I have made during my time at Bowdoin. I will always cherish this experience because I know that it is, truly, once in a lifetime.
Craig Hardt is a member of the Class of 2012.