Making time to meet new people

After letting the first few weeks of the semester slip by from procrastination, I realized that I had to work more efficiently. I camped out in the library. I began power walking to classes. I reduced dinner to 15 minutes of shoveling food in my mouth.

I rethought this behavior after a conversation with a sophomore friend. “I don’t think that people should act so busy all the time. People should make time to talk over dinner. What’s worth more: a few extra minutes of studying or the company of another human being?”

At Princeton, we all block out time. However, after getting accustomed to allotting half an hour for this problem set and 50 minutes for that paper, we risk quantifying people and experiences as well. Study break? Nope, not when there’s a computer science problem set I could be doing. Murray-Dodge Café? I need to do extra reading for my seminar. Student event? Is that productive in any way?

Despite the other words, meeting new people is productive, if not in an academic way. Spending time with new people is a way of learning that goes beyond reading Chaucer or chatting with old friends. It helps us better understand ourselves and learn to interact with different people.

Spending time with people in the same major or with the same interests never forces us to question our priorities. Why am I a physics major? Why do I want to go into medicine? Whether choosing a class, an activity or a career path, we always benefit from the perspective of an outsider. Meeting people forces us to rethink our priorities.

Studying is easy. Busy work is easy. Holing up in our comfort zones, surrounding ourselves with like-minded people, is easy. Searching to better understand ourselves is much harder.

Moreover, every activity, every problem, every theorem, every thesis, every paper, every job or career, was thought up and created by humans. We can drown ourselves in our books, but we need to work with others in order to accomplish anything of merit. These people won’t have the same personalities or motivations as we do. Meeting people isn’t being unproductive — it’s preparing ourselves to work with others and to make an impact.

Finally, and most importantly, we have the wonderful opportunity at Princeton to meet people with all sorts of interests and cares. However, being in such a diverse place is pointless if everyone self-segregates. This is the only time in our lives that meeting such different people completely will be so easy.

Where can we meet people? In a survey I conducted with 11 people, the majority mentioned Frist Campus Center — particularly Late Meal — and Murray-Dodge as “cool places to hang out” and “get to know people.” Relaxed atmospheres, happy people and lots of calories — no better conditions for striking up conversations with random people. Other places mentioned were the dining hall, residential college common rooms, the gym, study breaks, the Street, the University Art Museum, the Pace Center for Civic Engagement and student-organized events.

Aside from specific places, one senior told me: “Try out new extracurriculars and reach out to people. Sit down with random freshmen at lunch. You’re still in the high-acceptance phase of freshman year, so take advantage of that!”

Freshmen: we have the time and freedom to meet new people. Before we throw ourselves into the race for success in classes, research, internships and job applications, let’s keep exploring. We’re only one-sixteenth of our way through Princeton, but we are nowhere close to knowing one-sixteenth of our fellow Princetonians. Let’s make time to be open. Let’s make time for new people.

Jonathan Lu is a freshman fromFremont, Calif. He can be reached at jhlu@princeton.edu.