Class Note 2020
Issue
November-December 2021
Hi, everyone, and happy holidays! Curl up this season with three stories from our classmates on pandemic hardships and gratitudes.
Yi Fei Yan writes: “The past year was a difficult year for me for various reasons, but I feel grateful that I found solace in the discordant states of both solitude and community. This hyper-connected era that we live in has made solitude a less attractive, if not heretical, proposition, but it is precisely this nature of the modern world that makes it valuable to seek refuge from time to time in order to preserve mental sanity and integrity. Meditation was an infallible companion during these times, and I highly recommend everyone incorporate such practices into their quotidian lives, pandemic or not.
“Yet sustained solitude becomes seclusion and finding communities that accept us for who we are is just as important as self-reflection. Fortunately, when I moved to San Francisco I stumbled upon welcoming communities: local Dartmouth alumni, company new grads, climbing pals, and many more. The magic of great communities is that they make even the most foreign land feel like the promised land. Special thanks to mushroom queen Anna Dodson for spores of new friends!
Shae Wolfe writes: “When Covid-19 disrupted my post-graduation plans to join the Peace Corps in Peru, I thought I would have to settle on a different path. Instead I’ve spent the last year bursting with passion and motivation, discovering interests I didn’t know I had. I work at Boston Medical Center conducting research on harm reduction and opioid overdose prevention. Our study aims to understand how a counseling intervention may impact the risk and rate of opioid overdose.
“I spend my days recruiting participants, introducing them to our study, screening them for eligibility, and interviewing them about their substance use, witnessed or experienced overdose events, and more. I feel extremely grateful for the opportunity to get to know my participants so deeply and to listen to such intimate stories.
“I’ve always known that I wanted to be a doctor, but I was unsure what I wanted to choose as a specialty. My experiences this past year have not only solidified my interest in addiction medicine, they have also given me the opportunity to model the kind of care provider I want to be: someone who doesn’t speak for those who are voiceless, but instead gives people their own mic.”
Adam Riegler writes: “Before March 2020 I expected to leave Dartmouth with purpose, but when June came around, I felt confused. I spent four years studying theater only to find the live arts extinguished overnight—and their future uncertain. I moved home and spent almost a year reflecting on my path and wondering if I had made a wrong move somewhere.
“The result was an understanding of the value of what I learned in Hanover. I was too caught up on the minutia; what Dartmouth had truly taught me was how to create my own path and pursue success despite limitations.
“I refused the idea that theater needed to be paused and created a plan to safely build the life for which I had prepared. Leveraging the immense talent of Dartmouth peers (Holden Harris, Gray Christie, Sophia Kinne, and Max Samuels ’15), the connectivity of Zoom, and the available room in my parents’ house, I directed and filmed a live play: Albert Names Edward by Louis Nowra.
“I feel grateful to Dartmouth for teaching me how to overcome obstacles in order to fulfill my passions and giving me the resources to take back control in my life.”
Hugs.
—Katie Goldstein, 263 W Santa Inez, Hillsborough, CA 94010; katie.e.goldstein.20@dartmouth.edu
Yi Fei Yan writes: “The past year was a difficult year for me for various reasons, but I feel grateful that I found solace in the discordant states of both solitude and community. This hyper-connected era that we live in has made solitude a less attractive, if not heretical, proposition, but it is precisely this nature of the modern world that makes it valuable to seek refuge from time to time in order to preserve mental sanity and integrity. Meditation was an infallible companion during these times, and I highly recommend everyone incorporate such practices into their quotidian lives, pandemic or not.
“Yet sustained solitude becomes seclusion and finding communities that accept us for who we are is just as important as self-reflection. Fortunately, when I moved to San Francisco I stumbled upon welcoming communities: local Dartmouth alumni, company new grads, climbing pals, and many more. The magic of great communities is that they make even the most foreign land feel like the promised land. Special thanks to mushroom queen Anna Dodson for spores of new friends!
Shae Wolfe writes: “When Covid-19 disrupted my post-graduation plans to join the Peace Corps in Peru, I thought I would have to settle on a different path. Instead I’ve spent the last year bursting with passion and motivation, discovering interests I didn’t know I had. I work at Boston Medical Center conducting research on harm reduction and opioid overdose prevention. Our study aims to understand how a counseling intervention may impact the risk and rate of opioid overdose.
“I spend my days recruiting participants, introducing them to our study, screening them for eligibility, and interviewing them about their substance use, witnessed or experienced overdose events, and more. I feel extremely grateful for the opportunity to get to know my participants so deeply and to listen to such intimate stories.
“I’ve always known that I wanted to be a doctor, but I was unsure what I wanted to choose as a specialty. My experiences this past year have not only solidified my interest in addiction medicine, they have also given me the opportunity to model the kind of care provider I want to be: someone who doesn’t speak for those who are voiceless, but instead gives people their own mic.”
Adam Riegler writes: “Before March 2020 I expected to leave Dartmouth with purpose, but when June came around, I felt confused. I spent four years studying theater only to find the live arts extinguished overnight—and their future uncertain. I moved home and spent almost a year reflecting on my path and wondering if I had made a wrong move somewhere.
“The result was an understanding of the value of what I learned in Hanover. I was too caught up on the minutia; what Dartmouth had truly taught me was how to create my own path and pursue success despite limitations.
“I refused the idea that theater needed to be paused and created a plan to safely build the life for which I had prepared. Leveraging the immense talent of Dartmouth peers (Holden Harris, Gray Christie, Sophia Kinne, and Max Samuels ’15), the connectivity of Zoom, and the available room in my parents’ house, I directed and filmed a live play: Albert Names Edward by Louis Nowra.
“I feel grateful to Dartmouth for teaching me how to overcome obstacles in order to fulfill my passions and giving me the resources to take back control in my life.”
Hugs.
—Katie Goldstein, 263 W Santa Inez, Hillsborough, CA 94010; katie.e.goldstein.20@dartmouth.edu