The beginning of the end

Based on the description provided by my 16-year-old brother, I’m not missing much by being out of the loop as far as current teen culture is concerned, but there’s a larger implication to being so removed from that age group that is more profound than not knowing who Justin Bieber is. In my mind, I imagined the real issues of the world being tackled by people who are too old and mature to concern themselves with tween music sensations and cliques. Officially relinquishing that world means acknowledging that I am one of those people whose responsibility it is to confront the occasionally harsh realities of the world in which I live.

From then on, I felt as though time began moving exponentially. Little brothers, including my own, seemed suddenly taller and older than they were supposed to be, doing odd things like learning to drive and thinking about prom. People who are just a year older than I were entering graduate and professional schools, or even more unbelievably, the workforce. The reality of how close the real world was getting became downright unsettling, and it’s been most of what I’ve thought about and talked about since I’ve been back on campus. We really are just like those eighth graders, progressing inevitably onward into a new phase of our lives. However, recognizing the inexorable reality of moving on, as well as remembering that we’ve survived the transitions thus far in our lives, can make this passage a whole lot less daunting.

Every conversation I’ve had with a fellow senior has looped back multiple times to the fact that it’s exceedingly surreal to be getting ready for our final year here at Princeton. We’re hurtling toward the world they say exists outside FitzRandolph Gate, and the speed at which things are already whizzing by is dizzying. While our freshman week still feels like yesterday, I also know that I have gone a long way academically since September 2007. I’ve felt the passage of time in problem sets, if in no way else, so I am reaching the point at which I think I should be given something, namely a diploma, for my years of work. I have a feeling that once the reality of the Princeton grind sets in next week, finishing my work here will start to look a whole lot better.

Despite all that has transpired since I arrived, I still have the feeling that I slipped into senior status with suspicious ease. It is like the proverbial calm before the storm, with the banality of move-in, textbook purchases and catching up with friends temporarily obscuring the reality of the tumultous transition from college to our next academic or career venture. I realize, though, after some amount of fretting and half-seriously asking my parents if I could stay home forever, that I actually am ready to move on, even if I’m nervous about the uncertainty of the future. Adjusting to the increased autonomy, heavier workload and new environment that many of us experienced coming into Princeton was actually a valuable step toward figuring out how to manage ourselves outside of school, so it really isn’t such an impossible leap.

It’s an odd feeling to be the most senior students in the school, and it is even more unnerving to realize that it’s a few short months until we are expected to brave the waters of the real world. However, as I spent time coming to grips with a life outside of school, I realized that I really have grown up more than I initially realized. The issues of society feel more real to me, and I suddenly have confidence that I can, in fact, make an impact in the world. I think that it’s natural to approach moving on with some amount of trepidation, whether we are freshmen trying to figure out what Princeton is all about, or seniors lining up where we’re going to be a year from now, but we really only come here to be able to leave with something. Being in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations just means that we eventually have to take what we learn away with us to do something good, and that doesn’t sound so bad after all.

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