Reflections on pre-JP life

It's happened. My worst fears about Princeton have been realized. The jibes of my friends from home have come true. "You're going to be in the library on Saturday nights while we're out at bars having fun." Well, it's Saturday night and I'm in Firestone.

It's the first time that it's happened. But I'm working on my JP because I have a draft due on Monday. I look around and see a few other Juniors and a handful of graduate students who are all diligently pounding away on laptops or taking copious notes on legal pads. Next to me sits my friend whose thesis is due on Monday. She is editing. When we take a break, we see a lone freshman walk into the library. We want to run up to him and say, "Get out of here! You don't need to be here!" But instead we settle for publishing a few reflections in the Prince in an attempt to give our younger classmates some advice on the ways of Princeton.

Now my friend and I don't want to be condescending, to tell freshmen that they don't have as much work as they think. I hated hearing that back in the day when I was taking ECO 102 and LIT 141. But now in upper level classes with independent work, I realize that my friends in the classes above me were right: I didn't have that much to do. Now I realize that it seems like a lot of work to freshmen, coming from high school where minimal work frequently received exceptional grades. But I want to assure you that your classes are not as important and difficult as you think they are.

This is not to belittle the work that freshmen have. It is rather to emphasize the importance of not making one's academic work one's whole life. There will be plenty of time for that, come JPs and theses, don't worry. Princeton offers so much more than just its classes. When you have the chance to go out, take it. When residential colleges offer trips to New York, go on them. When there's an interesting play at Theatre Intime, go see it. When there is an engaging lecture being given, go hear it. There will come a time, I assure you, when you'll want to take these opportunities but there will be research to be done, books to be read, drafts to be written.

This is also not to complain about how much work I – or anyone else – have. I enjoy my work. I love Firestone. I talk incessantly about my JP. But I do get tired, burnt out and want to throw my computer through the window. There comes a point when turning in a bunch of jumbled pages with typos, sentence fragments and poorly developed ideas doesn't seem like such a bad idea. But I persevere (most times) and thus I'm in Firestone at 11 PM on a Saturday night. So my advice to freshmen is this: When it comes time to write your JPs or your thesis, don't take four upper level classes in your department. There will be one class that you'll have to blow off completely. (That is, if you want to sleep or do anything else but work.) In essence, take your classes seriously, but not too seriously. Have some fun too.

Perhaps, I should start taking my own advice. Maybe I'm taking my JP a little too seriously. Perhaps, I should remember that freshmen are not the only ones that need to take a break and have fun. I know that when it comes down to it, my JP will get done. My friend knows that her thesis will be finished come Monday. So, if you see me in Firestone next Saturday complaining about my work and romanticizing my time as an underclassman, tell me to get a grip, take a break and relax. Perhaps things haven't changed as much as I think. I've written tons of papers, and, although JP officially stands for Junior Paper, it could just as appropriately mean Just a Paper. John Lurz is an English major from Lutherville, Md. He can be reached at johnlurz@princeton.edu.