And to think I saw it on Olden Street!

Each morning I walk very quickly to class,

My head down, bag clutched tight, the whole world I pass.

My only thought is, “Get to the E-Quad,”

My only companions: my books and my iPod.

Efficiency! Speed! To get there on time!

There are streets to be crossed; there are stairs to be climbed!

This is the mantra, chiseled in rock:

Don’t pay attention, you! Just walk!

To the D-wing from Little I speedwalk along,

Cursing Jersey weather to the beat of my song.

From D-wing to Icahn, from Icahn to Wu,

I check this and that off my daily “to-do.”

“The details are fluff!” I think in a huff,

“Silliness, Frilliness, Nonsense and Stuff!

I am in a hurry and you should be, too.

You have books to read and homework to do!”

I do not have time to know how things are going;

My school days are full up with reading and knowing.

Who has time to be, when they need to act?

I must free up my mind to make room for more facts.

You can picture, then, my distress and dismay

When my roomate asked, “What did you do today?”

It was honestly only a big busy haze,

Husling and bustling through the Princeton maze.

The cogs of my mind, they creaked to a start.

It won’t hurt for me to embellish some parts …

My day was fantastic … with a little tweak.

I took a deep breath and I started to speak:

“Well,” I began, “my day started at 9;

“I awoke to birds chirping and bright, bright sunshine.

I ate a great breakfast, an omlette, some toast;

I had eggs scrambled, and deviled, and poached.

My first class of the day was Fluid Dynamics.

Our subject today was air flow though hammocks.

Our homework is to do some rigorous testing,

The assignment is called “The Dynamics of Resting.”

Coconut drink in hand, I walked down the hill

To find Icahn shut down by a HazMat spill.

My MOL professor, armed head to toe,

Told us that we were in for quite the show.

From behind the building, a deafening roar

And into the sky, we saw the beast soar,

Half squrrel, half eagle, half cat and half beagle,

A platypus cousin’s child with a seagull,

Its claws were clawing; its teeth were bared.

The crowd that was gathered just gasped and stared.

“Take notes!” the professor yelled just as he pounced.

“Notice that the mutant phenotype is pronounced!”

The battle was epic: Fur and claws flew,

And when the dust settled, the beast was subdued!

The crowd it went wild. The prof took a bow.

The monster defeated … Time for lunch now!

I made the mistake of walking into Wu.

By the second, the crowd exponentially grew.

The mob pushed and shoved; it started to mosh.

The pizza was trampled, the soup spilled and sloshed.

I dashed for the tables, my pasta in hand.

This was not the relaxing meal that I had planned!

I barely escaped with my whole lunch intact,

And I had to eat it in 10 minutes, exact.

My last class today was REL 270,

The epic stories of Medieval Christianity.

Our professor told us we were in for a treat:

He had a good friend he wanted us to meet.

An alum who thought history here was too drab

Had donated something he made in his lab.

So instead of reading about it (how plain),

We’re going to visit Emperor Charlemagne!

All of a sudden, the room started rumbling.

Papers slid off desks, and backpacks went tumbling.

Over the din our teacher yelled “Hold tight!”

“Keep hands and feet in while the classroom alights!”

Our building jumped up and lurched through the time stream,

Our place in hist’ry up on the PowerPoint screen.

We took a quick tour of five or six centuries,

Hobnobbing with rulers, impressing the gentry.

But much, much too quickly our class time was done.

We were back in old Princeton at twenty past one.

I straightened my clothes, I brushed off the dust,

I gathered my things, and back home I rushed.

And now I am here telling you my great story,

The peril! The drama! The guts and the glory!

My day was astounding, exciting and  rowdy!

I shunned the humdrum, the boring and dowdy!

Such was my day, what I saw and heard,

And from Dr. Seuss, I’ll borrow my last words:

“THAT is a story that no one can beat,

When I say that I saw it on [Olden] Street!’.”

My roomate said NIL, though the telling was ardent!

Then she took out her headphones, turned and said “Pardon?”

“I didn’t catch all of that. Sorry!” she said.

“Go back to just after you got out of bed.”

“Well … I got up at 9, and my day was OK.

My classes were good … There’s not much to say.”

“Maybe tomorrow,” she said as she looked back to her book.

“Maybe then you’ll find magic, if only you look.”

Sophia LeMaire is a mechanical and aerospace engineering major from Longmeadow, Mass. She can be reached at slemaire@princeton.edu.