Pause and reflect

Freshman

Dixon Li

Reflections are a paradox. We spend our days reaching back in time with a mirror, trying to recreate fleeting moments for the present. My freshman year has been full of paradoxes. Some of my unhappiest and most depressing moments have been the most meaningful moments. Some of the people who I thought I would like the least, I love the most. An intimidating research paper has become a personally enriching experience and also a hellish game of hide and seek with books in Firestone Library. I am convinced there is somebody who is watching my searches on the catalog and moving books before I can get to them — and by somebody I mean the squirrels.

I’m amazed by how much smarter my classmates are than they were in high school, and I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I learn when I feel stupid. And it’s true that you learn just as much outside of the classroom as you do in the classroom. The school might teach Swahili or Arabic, but I doubt you can find another campus as well-versed in FML vernacular as is Princeton.

In September, I thought that I would spend the next four years preparing myself for some kind of job in the real world. But I’ve realized that I will instead probably spend the next three years holed up in a library studying something’s effect on something nobody really cares about. But I’m happy about it. And according to the “Major Choices” booklet, I will end up in investment banking, consulting or law anyway. However, I’m still looking for a program that lets me major in “Marrying a rich spouse” on the “Getting really drunk on wine” track, which would fulfill all the requirements for a certificate in “Seducing the household help” and “Getting into a country club full of 50-year-old women named Doreen.” Notify me if those possibilities ever open up.

Overall, I would have to say that Princeton is a wonderful place. From the mini-city on the B-floor of Firestone to the throne toilet in Murray-Dodge Cafe, there are many mysteries and wonders to be explored. In a place where nobody wakes you up to go to class or makes sure you do your readings, I take comfort in the fact that we are free to explore any academic subject we desire. Unless you are an engineer. Then your life is miserable, and I don’t know what else to tell you.

XOXO

I wish I was “Gossip Girl” so I wouldn’t have to worry about my financial future.

Sophomore

Allie Weiss

"Oh, you’re a sophomore? You better live it up while you still can. It all goes downhill from there!”

I’ve heard a version of this line, accompanied by a certain look — the “don’t talk about being stressed or I’ll smack you over the head with my junior paper/thesis/LSAT prep book” look — too many times to count. Sometimes I like hearing people tell me this, and I think, “Yeah! I still have time to bum around and watch ‘Modern Family’ while eating a quesadilla from late meal.” I study in Firestone only once a semester and walk by the carrels filled with stressed seniors and chuckle to myself. Aren’t you jealous? I’m a sophomore! I don’t have to do nothin’!

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Well, except for all those classes I’m in with all those papers to write. And that extracurricular stuff that takes all my time. And yes, sophomores do internship applications, too! Point is, we’re not trying to one-up you in any way, juniors and seniors, but let sophomores be stressed once in a while too. Back when you were a sophomore, you probably didn’t go to the Street seven nights a week, either. Well, maybe you did, in which case you are awesome.

Sophomore year is an important year at Princeton, with big decisions to be made: What will be your major? Will you join an eating club? Now that I am one month away from finishing sophomore year I feel sort of like an adult. I’ve declared my major (what’s up, English!) and joined an eating club. I’ve decided what activities I want to spend my time doing and what friends I want to be around. Having these things in place is a great feeling, so in that sense, sophomore year really is wonderful. While nothing can quite beat the exciting newness of freshman year (before you get jaded), during sophomore year you can really settle in, figure out who you want to be and have fun along the way — before you get attacked by the beast that is independent work.

I have to say, I’m pretty sad to kiss sophomore year goodbye, mostly because doing so means that I’m halfway through my time at college, which is a thought that makes me want to put on all my Princeton gear at once and cry to myself in the fetal position. (All right, not actually, but I really love this place! And college is going by so quickly! Exclamation point!) Even if my sophomore peers don’t quite share my level of enthusiasm, I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks college is passing too quickly. These are supposed to be the best four years of our lives, right? But does that really mean I have only two more years of fun to look forward to?

Even if that were true, the good news is that sophomores do have two more years here. I’ll stop moping so the seniors reading this don’t kill me — they are the only ones entitled to be sad right now. And, from what I hear, there are things to look forward to in junior year. Like turning 21! And, well, there are probably other things too.

Junior

Louisa Ferguson

Freshman year I partied a lot and had a lot of friends and free time. Sophomore year I had more work but maintained my friends and free time. This year, junior year, I have involuntarily substituted friends and free time exclusively for work. No one told me it was going to suck so much. Or if they did, it was probably freshman or sophomore year when I was too busy having friends and fun to pay attention.

First, you have these papers that you are supposed to write called junior papers. The first one is not so bad. You write it, you “understand” writing it, but most importantly, you have winter break to do both of those things. You eat your generic holiday meal trying not to dribble dressing on the laptop you have propped by your side, but that’s fine. This is what Princeton is about — academic work taking precedence over fun. Ignore your high school friends who call you wanting to ghost-ride in the snow; you go to Princeton and you understand the concept of “delayed gratification.” You know what “matters most.”

The second JP, however, is trickier. You have to start thinking about it during your first JP which means you most likely pick a topic the night before the deadline, and it will most likely be one that you subsequently regret picking. You have a love-hate relationship with your JP advisor, by which I mean you hate that you have to make him love you. He may describe your paper as “salvageable” and a quotation you select as “excruciating,” but you hold back your tears because juniors don’t cry. In public.

Here’s some advice I can offer you from my own experience. If you are friends with science majors, you should probably begin to distance yourself from them now. They will disappear second semester. They have this thing called “Core Lab,” and it takes up all their free time which means they will “not have time” for you. No worries, you “don’t have time” for them. After all, you have a JP to salvage. “Not having time” is a prominent theme of junior year. No one “has time” to do basic things like hang out or eat or shower. Are you dating someone? You probably won’t be next year! It’s kind of a paradox: I don’t “have time” to write this article but in doing so I am “doing something productive” while still not working on my second JP. You will keep two ibuprofen tablets permanently in your pocket because of the headaches you get from your vision, which, from constantly staring at your computer, will have deteriorated to the point that you need glasses but, of course, you “don’t have time” to actually go get them.

Junior year is also a good time to start thinking about your senior thesis. If you are on top of your game, you can even apply for funding. But to do that you need to do some serious research and serious thinking while you are writing your second JP, figuring out your “summer plans,” most likely running your student groups because you are older now, and taking four or, if you are insane, five classes. You should have started thinking about this yesterday.

Are you panicking? Good! I mean, don’t worry! Things will be fine, three of you will probably get a consulting or finance job, the only type of internship that matters. There are some fun things about junior year too, like “eating clubs” or “not living in Forbes.” I don’t “have time” to write about them though.

Senior

Adam Tanaka

I used to look up at seniors and think: “Wow, they’ve got their stuff figured out. They know this place inside out. Princeton is their playground.” Freshman year, you’re wide-eyed and overwhelmed. Sophomore year, you’re starting to settle in. Then junior year hits and all of a sudden the carpet’s pulled out from under you; you’re eating all your meals on Prospect Avenue, former suitemates are scattered far and wide, and you have to deal with all the stress of independent work as well.

Senior year was supposed to be the time where it all came together; by this point, you’re a pro, right? Well, let me tell you something: That’s not the case at all. The past eight months have probably been the most tumultuous and transformative since I was a freshman — and mostly in a good way, too.

I don’t know whether it was the cold shock of realizing real life was approaching, or the “past-three-years-flashing-before-my-eyes” feeling that my time in the Orange Bubble was coming to a close, but I tried more new things and met more new people in senior year than I had during any other. The more I got to know this school, the more I realized there were countless places I hadn’t been (the Engineering Quadrangle?) and countless experiences I hadn’t exposed myself too (the Debasement Bar. Trust me, it’s more an experience than a place). That’s the true blessing of senior year: it’s not the comfort of having found your little niche, but the thrill of understanding just how expansive and limitless Princeton really is.

Of course, there are other elements of senior year that leave their mark, too — both positively and negatively. Looking for a job is one thing that everyone starts panicking about right at the beginning of the fall semester, bringing with it a level of “holy-crap-I’m-an-adult” stress that I promise you have never experienced before, not even in the lowliest depths of your third consecutive all-nighter.

Then there’s the 120 page hardcover tome you’re forced to write to graduate from this place, which, depending on who you talk to is either the most intellectually rewarding experience you’ll have at this school or a sleepless, never-ending nightmare — and, occasionally, both.

Most seniors have now comfortably entered into “PTL” — a post-thesis life of basking in the sun (or rather, sheltering from the never-ending rain) and enjoying their last few weeks here. Some people can’t wait to sprint out of FitzRandolph Gate, others can’t imagine a life outside the Bubble. I’m trying to put everything in perspective as well, which is tricky — especially with the alumni nostalgia machine loudly kicking into gear.

In the meantime, I’m checking those last few items off my bucket list: have a meal at all the eating clubs (nine out of 10, almost there), swim in the Woody Woo fountain (just waiting for it to get a little bit warmer), eat at Carousel (it can’t be as creepy as it looks) — and, hopefully, find the time to finish up these classes as well.