Why would you want your incoming freshman or sophomore resident to live in a first-year house? The simple answer is “everyone is going through everything for the first time together.” But what are those important firsts they share?
Being away from home for an extended amount of time.
This isn’t 2-4 weeks of summer camp or a trip with your best friend’s family. Boarding school is every day, every week for nine months. Yes, there are breaks, but when you are in the day-to-day routine, those breaks seem few and far between. The reality of not being at home, whether it is Atlanta or China, builds unlikely and extraordinary friendships.
Embracing differences.
I tell girls in my dorm that they are “married” to their housemates and especially their roomate. In a marriage you might not like some of your spouse’s habits, but you love them and learn to live with certain behaviors and address the ones that are deal breakers. Communication, compromise and compassion. These are lifelong skills that all our residents will take with them into the world.
School events and rituals.
For every resident in a first-year house, every event at school is a first. First day of school, first Homecoming, first RUMPUS, first Light the Lake, first Lessons and Carols, etc. Now add in all the academic firsts – successes and failures, that all of them experience on a daily basis. They can celebrate and commiserate together which brings them even closer.
Building a home away from home.
I continue to be amazed at the amount of love and support first-year residents give each other every year. There is a deep level of empathy and understanding that creates lasting bonds between the girls. These bonds create a familial relationship that is not a substitute for their biological family, but an extension of it.
Why am I in the first-year house?
In addition to watching the girls experience DAR World during their first year, I have the privilege of having almost every resident girl who graduates from Darlington live in Cooper House. This is my fourth year at Darlington, so my first group of freshmen girls are seniors this year. I have looked forward to this graduation, when the freshmen I shared my first year with walk across the stage. I hope the skills they learned in Cooper House their first year better prepare them for all the firsts they will have the rest of their lives.
