Campus life's most underappreciated part

I've been looking through my miraculous see-into-the-future goggles lately (they're redonkulous) and been thinking about life as a sophomore. Though there are several things I will miss about life as an underclassman next year — lack of independent work, Butler pride, 12 emails a day from the loving members of the college office — there is one thing I will greatly miss more than the rest: eating at the dining hall.

Oh, surely it can't be! Everyone hates the dining hall! The pancakes taste like rubber and the brownies bounce when you drop them! We've all been craving eating club/alternative sources of food ever since we got to Princeton! Go get your head checked out and stop speaking silly, you stupid sophomore (points for cheesy alliteration).

I'm not kidding, though. Sure, the food may not always be the most delicate cuisine, especially during dinnertime. The lunches, however, always receive applause from students. Offering entrées ranging from meatball sandwiches to tacos to finely seasoned pasta, the lunches are surprisingly tasty. A salad bar, cereal and approximately a dozen drinks are available at each meal. Even better, the grill options are consistently solid even if you have to get back in line each time you want another piece of chicken. Says Matt Kireker '07, "Usually, I'm the only one in line, so when they tell me to get back in line, I kind of just walk in a circle and back in line." Ah yes, Matt, the classic spin around.

So we've covered the food. Decent at times. Awful at others. Clearly, the food alone does not make the dining hall experience the wonderful, giddy-happy thing I make it out to be.

So what is it about the dining hall that I will really miss? After sophomore year, we won't be eating all our meals with all of our friends anymore — sure many, but not all. Granted, in whatever eating club or dining option we choose, we'll have a new crew to eat with, but for me, it won't be the same as eating at precisely 6:45 with more or less the same ten friends every meal who I've eaten with for the past year and a half. Like jam on a piece of toast, we're all going to get spread out.

During stressful weeks, eating at the dining hall is a wonderful break. Upperclassmen can do that too, but most have to walk a mile and a half to get their food. I live just a hop skip and a jump away from the dining hall, so it's nice to be able to so quickly get away from work. What better way to waste time than to show up at the dining hall at 5:30 p.m. and stay until you get kicked out at 8. As soon as you finish your meal, someone sits down with you, so you wait. While that person's eating, someone else sits down, so there's always someone eating. It's the beauty of overlap. And it's beautiful because it's the perfect excuse to stay at dinner for way longer than you should. Says Peter Ryan '07, "The time I spend in the dining hall is definitely triple what I actually need to eat." Way to be.

Some of my favorite moments of college occurred in the dining hall. Thinking about the time we started a food fight and I got nailed in the forehead with an egg yolk, the time we played Beirut with hard candies on the long tables and the time my friend sent his wallet into the kitchen on his tray via the conveyor belt cause me to randomly burst out chuckling like a fool. Alas, I have neglected to mention the shining star of the dining hall—the magical potion that flows freely in the form of Fro-yo. Fro-yo, perhaps something everyone on campus has grown to love and cherish is a staple of dining hall life. Honestly, who hasn't found themselves salivating at the thought of cookies 'n' cream fro-yo while doing a problem set?

Upperclassmen, cherish the memories. Freshmen, cherish the remaining year and half of PUDS life. And sophomores, let us savor every remaining meal with our buddies, rubber pancakes and all. Cheers! Neel Gehani is a sophomore from Summit. He can be reached at ngehani@princeton.edu.