The daily ritual: a walk down the Street

Walking down Prospect Avenue is something most upperclassmen do multiple times everyday. If we're not walking to meals, we're walking to class. If we're not walking to class, we're walking to parties. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the walk down the Street will become a defining memory of my Princeton experience. After all, the number of times the average upperclassman walks out to the Street each day is probably greater than the number of times he brushes his teeth or pays attention in class.

When walking out to eat, the dynamic of students that turn off at each eating club is quite amusing to me. A blonde, a jock and a huge nerd walk out past Ivy. The blonde turns to everyone and says, "OMG guys, I haven't eaten in like, foreverrrr, I'm gonna go pick at salad ... dressing on the side of course." She walks into Cottage. The jock and the huge nerd continue to walk down the street. After about 30 seconds, the jock decides he can't listen to the nerd talk about his calculator anymore. After all, he can't add. He says, "Hey dork, I'll see ya later." He turns into Cap. The huge nerd trudges down the Street into the distance. After about 20 more minutes, he enters Charter and starts to read the dictionary over lunch. God bless stereotypes, though I guess we have The New York Observer to publicize those these days.

Normally, I enjoy walking to the Street. It gives me a great chance to perfect the wave-hello, the head-nod and all other forms of three-second acknowledgement. Occasionally, however, you get that annoying kid in your econ precept who wants to do the "stop-and-talk." C'mon dude, are you really gonna make me take out my iPod headphones and listen to you babble about how our econ preceptor can't speak English? Big freaking surprise. Maybe if you were one of those blonde Cottage girls, I'd care about what ya gotta say. Just kidding, of course.

The weather is very important when it comes to determining just how much fun the walk to The Street is. Sunny day? I love being in Cap and having those extra five minutes of people-seeing. I'll take my sweet time and give out the head-nods left and right. Heck, I might even engage in a brief ... stop and talk! Snow on the ground? F___cking sucks! Anyone who's in a club past Tower has at least a 15 percent chance of spraining an ankle, and that's a scientific fact. So, I know the clubs aren't University-sponsored, but couldn't the University shovel the sidewalks just a little bit? That way we'd actually be able to walk to class and let our grades get deflated.

The most interesting part about walking to The Street is the question of sidestepping. If you've ever walked down the Street, you've been involved in a situation where three people are walking one way and three people are walking the other way. Clearly, the sidewalk isn't big enough for both groups. Who moves? Who is the beeyatch? It's like a slow-motion game of chicken with very complex rules, but there are some obvious facts. Freshmen, Quad members and members of the lightweight crew always step off the sidewalk. It's about respect.

There are a lot of things I am going to miss about Princeton when I graduate. That's for sure. At the risk of being extremely cheesy, I must admit that simple things like the daily walk out to the Street are what I'm really going to miss. On no street in New York City will I see as many people I know. There will be few head-nods to give, and I'll crave a stop-and-talk with an old buddy. So, for the next few months, whenever I walk out to the Street, I'm going to appreciate the walk — even if there's snow all over the ground and I have to walk halfway with a huge nerd from Charter. Neel Gehani is an ORFE major from Summit, N.J. He can be reached at ngehani@princeton.edu.