Clowning around: Student seeks adventure, challenge in joining Big Apple circus. Parents overjoyed: 'Finally, she made something of herself.'

There I was, 50 feet in the air, no net, just a thin string between me and sudden death below. My heart was pounding, my head was hurting and my left eye was doing that annoying twitching thing it does when I'm nervous. Then it was the moment of truth. Without even thinking, I did a flip on my unicycle, landed right side up and sped off to the safety platform at the side of the rope. The audience cheered like crazy. It was the best feeling in the world!

Last year, in the middle of my Princeton education, after feeling overwhelmingly dissatisfied with my academic career, I decided to enroll in Clown College. Soon after, I joined the Big Apple Circus. It was the best decision of my life.

My parents are so pleased. Every show, they sit in the front row at Madison Square Garden and just stare up at me with eyes full of love and devotion. My dad brings fresh flowers and my mom takes rolls and rolls of pictures. It's so cute. And my little brother Randolph Clown '06 sits there with his calculator, punching in all these numbers to see where I'd land if I fell, and how fast I'd split my head open, depending on the speed with which I hit the ground. It's really touching that he's so interested in my life. He never cared about me before. Randy's thinking about joining the circus, too, if his interest in astrophysics falls through.

It's just that it's so great to finally be appreciated. To feel like I'm a "someone" and not just another random person who goes to the number one school in the country. I mean, I'm in the circus. The circus. We're talking the Big Apple.

When I was accepted to Princeton, no one was impressed. No one in my family had ever gone to college before and they didn't see what the big deal was.

"Yeah, Clown, you think you're so hot?" they would taunt me every night at dinner. "It's harder to get into Clown College than it is to get into Princeton."

At first, I didn't want to go to Clown College. I just wanted to be the first Clown who went to college. I wanted to go to Princeton. I heard they had eating clubs and huge snow storms and one-bedroom apartments in Fire-stone Library.

But now that I'm in the circus, there's no turning back. Eating clubs, shmeating clubs. Since I've joined the Big Apple Circus, I've had so many neat experiences. I've been upside down on a trapeze, stuffed into a clown car with 17 other people and shot out of a cannon. I've even swallowed a goldfish.

I've gotten many supportive letters from Princeton faculty members and administrators, who support my choice and ask for free tickets to the show.

This one's from President Tilghman: "Dear Ms. Clown: You are a fine example of the Princeton spirit and the spirit of feminism. We girls can do anything."

So, all you students out there, sitting in your dining hall, reading my column before darting off to your next lecture, you don't know what you're missing. Academics=boring. Circus=excitement. Even I can understand that and trust me, I am not a math major. Mazey Clown '04 is a major in the School of Circusry and Applied Arts. She is from the Big Apple, U.S.A. and can be reached at mclown@princeton.edu.