From skydiving to sleep: '08s celebrate

“Will Ellerbe [’08] was particularly natty in seersucker,” Kyle Booten ’08, one of the English majors, said in an e-mail. “Our goal was to heighten the sense of ceremony, although the entire day could have done with a bit more pomp.”

Now, they and the hundreds of other seniors who have spent months researching and writing are ready to celebrate. From catching up on sleep and leisure reading to skydiving, their plans run the gamut.

Politics concentrator Stuart Campo ’08 plans to go skydiving with a group of friends either the Friday morning of Houseparties or during reading period.

“It seemed like a good thing to do before leaving Princeton,” he explained.

In addition to skydiving, which he called his “official celebration,” Campo said he intends to just relax and have fun.

He explained that he wants to do “stupid childhood stuff,” like playing capture the flag and “all the stuff I would’ve liked to have done all year but couldn’t ’cause I was stuck in the library.”

Campo said he found the thesis experience rewarding but added that writing a thesis is less daunting than it may seem.

“When you’ve had Dean’s Dates where you’ve had to write 75 pages, 130 pages is not impossible to do in a fairly limited amount of time,” he added.

“This is one thing Princeton does well. Making us all do it, we leave feeling like we’ve accomplished something,” Campo said, explaining that, at other colleges, the spring semester of senior year is a joke.

“We still have time to play,” he added.

Julia McWilliams ’08 celebrated the completion of her politics thesis by buying a lawn chair at Target so that she could sit and bask in the sun while catching up on her leisure reading. McWilliams said, though, that she is actually somewhat sorry to be done.

“You spend so much time with your topic that you cannot help getting somewhat attached to it,” McWilliams said in an e-mail. “It is also a symbol of a completed academic career at Princeton and every time I think of that the waterworks immediately follow.”

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Matthew Schmitz ’08, however, said he felt mostly relieved to be done with his English thesis, adding that the shared experience created a sense of community.

“Even though the thesis is independent work, all the seniors are in it together,” Schmitz said. “A real attitude of camaraderie and encouragement develops. Many of the seniors in my eating club worked in the club, where other seniors and underclassmen would offer to help them out.”

Schmitz said he and his friends at Tower celebrated together after turning their theses in last Wednesday.

“Tower went on tap at lunch, so people were celebrating there all day, myself included,” Schmitz said. He also noted that the seniors gave each other recommendations for books to read and movies to see during their spare time.

Schmitz noted, however, that because many seniors have not yet finished, a class-wide celebration is premature.

Some seniors have less elaborate celebrations in mind.

“As soon as I turned in my thesis, I just went to sleep, which was pretty fantastic,” politics concentrator Kurt Kuehne ’08 said.

“You think all year that as soon as you turn it in, you’re going to want to go out and have a great time, but in reality you just want to go to bed,” he explained.