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(05/27/16 3:07pm)
As I stood in the middle of the Wilson School’s Fountain of Freedom after submitting my senior thesis, I could not help but feel, hidden beneath the watery surface and among the cold stone tiles, a lurking sense of self-doubt.Was this the best work that I could have turned in? Maybe I should have done more background research. Maybe I should have conducted a more complex statistical test. Maybe I should have had one more friend read over my final draft before I turned it in.During our four years here at Princeton, the senior thesis has been depicted as the “most valuable academic component of [our] Princeton experience,” the “culmination” of our path to “evolve as independent thinkers.” In essence, we have been told that the senior thesis is the best reflection of our academic selves. I knew I had tried, but it was hard to ignore my gut feeling that, just maybe, I should have tried a little bit harder.In a similar manner, we have also been told that the rest of our lives will be defined by how we have spent our time here at Princeton. Princeton will follow us. Not only literally through the alumni donation letters that will find our future mailboxes wherever we may go, but also through our future life choices that will be affected by how we have worked, played and interacted in these hallowed halls.As we are about to turn the final page on this chapter of our lives, I have started to feel the same sense of doubt that I had felt in that fountain almost two months ago. In terms of how I pursued my interests, handled my relationships or chose my career path, could I have done better?For our senior theses, we eventually receive an answer to that question in the form of a grade. We will know if we did too much or too little. However, there is no grade or progress report that will tell us how well we lived our lives. Even at the end, God will not hand us comprehensive comments outside the Pearly Gates filled with compliments, critiques and room for improvement. Life is not pass/D/fail. We get no answer.Nonetheless, stubborn and fickle, we try to get one. And in doing so, I fear that we will fall into the trap of the Cinderella shoe. We try to place our foot into a crystal shoe and lament if our foot is not a perfect fit. We take our own backgrounds and see how they match up against those of Mark Zuckerberg, Barack Obama and that guy who graduated two years ago and now works at McKinsey. If our life story thus far does not fit because we did the wrong summer internship, received the wrong grades or did not get into the right clubs, we feel like failures.To be brutally honest, I am still so afraid this may be the case. The mature, “adult” side of me wants to write that it is not. It wants to write that I have no regrets about my choices, to write that I will be content regardless of where I end up. Yet, I am truly afraid that I did not take full advantage of my time here. I am afraid of the missed opportunities. I am afraid that my best foot was not put forward. I am afraid that the next steps I am about to take could be better than they are.They say that hindsight is 20-20, and at times it seems so clear. Yes, we have all made a few clear-cut mistakes along the way, but life is far too complex, too multifaceted for us to be so binary. If I have realized anything, it is that there is no crystal shoe for us to put our foot into — behind the façade, our past is just as blurry as our future.A few weekends ago, I went home for Mother’s Day. Cleaning out my old room, I found a letter from my fifth-grade self to the future me about where I hoped to be. I hoped for a lot back then. To become a great drawer (nope). To learn how to play the piano (nope). To go to the University of Connecticut (nope). To grow six feet tall (definitely nope).And in reading this letter, I realized that my prior goals were radically different. Back then, I could never have imagined ending up somewhere like Princeton, let alone having any of the amazing experiences that I have had these past four years, whether it be presenting my Junior Paper at the White House, dancing to Flo Rida live at the 25th Reunion tent or going to Walt Disney World for fall break with friends. It is easy to notice the downsides in the rearview mirror after seeing all the ground that has been covered, but it is much harder to remember the difficulty of getting to where we are now.We worry, we doubt, we fear so much. And despite all the exerted energy, our efforts will most likely be futile. We will all probably end up somewhere far from where we currently hope. And the prospects of that sound terrifying. Yet what we want later may be far different than what we hope for now. And the chance of achieving what we could not even imagine in the present is extremely exciting, making our possibilities truly limitless.I wish I could write a letter to my fifth-grade self. If I could, I would let him know that despite all the road bumps, despite all the doubts, despite not achieving even a fraction of what I had hoped for back then, the journey ahead would surpass my wildest expectations. As my mother always used to say, it is the journey, not the destination, which you will appreciate.Benjamin Dinovelli is a Wilson School major from Mystic, Conn. He can be reached at bjd5@princeton.edu.
(05/29/15 6:40pm)
I complain about Princeton. A lot. Only a week into summer, I still feel like I am mentally recovering from a caffeine-fueled, stress-and-anxiety-filled daze from finals. With multiple exams, problem sets and papers, it becomes easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. In the long run, the difference between an A- and a B+ is extremely insignificant, but in the moment, it can seem overwhelmingly important. These smaller issues (or “first world problems” as some of my friends would jokingly say) snowball, building up to the point that it sometimes feels overwhelming.
(02/05/15 7:57pm)
Over Intersession, I did not fly out to Cancun, explore the other side of the Atlantic, or even travel back home to Connecticut. I stayed on campus to prep for interviews. Scheduling several hours a day, I met up with friends to practice, went to the library, and read up on the infamous Case in Point. After hearing, time and time again, the tired trope about the importance of internships, I feared being that one junior who would enter the month of March with nothing to show for it, starting my career down the wrong path.
(12/02/14 7:10pm)
I do not have to worry about being too suspicious.I do not have to worry about the clothes I wear.I do not have to worry about people crossing the street to avoid me.I do not have to worry about storeowners carefully watching my every move.
(11/12/14 7:20pm)
Ask a room full of people what they think when they hear the word “deficit” and the words “economy,” “government spending” or “taxes” may quickly come to mind. In a post-recession world, the phrase “deficit crisis” has become synonymous with government dysfunction, even used as a rallying call to criticize government largesse. However, Washington, D.C., may not be the only source of concern.
(10/15/14 6:31pm)
Over half a century ago, an authoritative body tried to silence an organization’s right to associate.When the issue came before the Supreme Court, Justice John Marshall Harlan II, in a unanimous opinion, wrote, ”It is beyond debate that freedom to engage in association for the advancement of beliefs and ideas is an inseparable aspect of the ‘liberty’ assured by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”The case: NAACP v. Alabama, which pitted the pro-segregationist Alabama Attorney General John Patterson against the pro-African-American civil rights group.While it’s obviously true the University would not try the same, the classic brawl between freedom of speech and association has appeared once again. This Monday, Professor Max Weiss wrote an op-ed, titled “Is the Center for Jewish Life stifling free speech on campus?”, that has stirred controversy over the CJL’s recent refusal to allow his participation in an event on the recent Gaza conflict.While I could extol the long, historical debates on the merits of both, I won’t waste your time. As the Center for Jewish Life argued in its response, “participation in a panel that we sponsor is a privilege and not a right.” And they’re right. Several Supreme Court decisions from Kusper v. Pontikes (1973) to Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000), have established a legal right for organizations, like the CJL, to associate with whomever they want.However, there is a fundamental difference between what is legally required of an organization and what an organization should aspire to accomplish. Sadly, this distinction is being missed.The goal of “address[ing] the context and consequences of the Israeli assault on Gaza in July that left over 2,100 Palestinians and nearly 70 Israelis dead” is clearly a noble one. This summer exploded into a hotbed of political, military and cultural tensions displayed on the television screens of millions. For many, whose first real in-depth analysis of this issue may be through such a panel, it is essential that they get the opportunity to hear from multiple sides.Removing Weiss — or failing to offer someone representative of that side of the debate — robs the panel’s audience of that chance to properly decide for themselves what they think. Granted, there is nothing wrong with promoting a panel that offers to explain the conflict from the “Israeli” perspective, but it appears that was not the panel’s intention.Framing the debate as objective, while completely excluding one side of the argument, is a disservice both to Weiss and the University community as a whole. While no association should be forced to invite a speaker, exclusion undoubtedly runs counter to the idea of academic openness that has made the University so great before. From Fidel Castro in the 1960s to Richard Falk last spring, the inclusion of even the most disagreed-upon views can widen our perspectives.In response, several members of the CJL responded that, while open to debate, they refuse to “sponsor groups or speakers that intend to harm Israel or promote racism or hatred of any kind.” The particular petition they referenced is a boycott against Israeli academic institutions, signed by Weiss over the summer.Equating the opposition to a governmental policy with “racism” only seeks to demonize the opposition and hurt, rather than foster, debate. Such calls attempt to equate Weiss with the same bigots who attempted to silence the NAACP half a century before. Ironically, this panel would have been the perfect opportunity for people to allow these ideas to compete against each other, allowing the audience to decide whether his ideas are merited or uncalled for.It is the same First Amendment that allows the CJL to associate that has also allowed Weiss to sign on to the boycott. In a democracy, like ours, it is the promotion of such a variety of views that grants us the ability to judge each argument on its own merit.The CJL representatives concluded that “panel discussions, travel experiences, [and] ongoing dialogues […] are more likely to bring about positive change than boycotts or newspaper articles that attack those working to find common ground.” While they are undoubtedly helpful, they are not always enough. Just ask Martin Luther King Jr. If we see wrong in the world, it is up to us to speak out to it. Better to let a potential wrong be examined and dismissed than crushed before it is even heard out.Ben Dinovelli is a Wilson School major from Mystic, Conn. He can bereached at bjd5@princeton.edu.
(10/01/14 9:06pm)
Taking the rush hour train across Midtown always seemed to show me the best of the city. The indescribable odors. The sweat created from the unbearable sauna-like heat. The people who would not shut up on their cellphones. Huddled together, you could not shake the eerie feeling that you were just one of a pack of sardines.
(09/15/14 6:09pm)
Annually, an estimated 50,000 people die due to exposure to secondhand smoke, according to the American Lung Association.
(05/30/14 8:13pm)
It was a bright cold day in May, and the clocks were striking 14-and-a-half, as a crowd full of Princeton students, alumni, teachers and relatives filtered into McCosh 50 yesterday to hear the panel “Big Brother is Watching: Is Privacy a Thing of the Past or Can It Be Reclaimed?” moderated by Princeton professor Ed Felten. While the panelists almost unanimously agreed on the merits of privacy and the importance of retaining it, the concept of having too much privacy was not fully addressed.
(04/23/14 6:10pm)
On April 1, Google notified workers at OpenSSL that they had discovered Heartbleed, an online bug that caused a fatal flaw in OpenSSL that left many users’ data vulnerable. OpenSSL is a tool used for data encryption by major websites such as Google, Yahoo, and Amazon. While bugs are commonplace on the web, Heartbleed leaves the backdoor to your private information wide open.
(04/06/14 5:53pm)
On March 27, students from across the country heard back from Ivy League colleges about whether they were accepted or not. Among them was Kwasi Enin, a 17-year-old student from William Floyd High School in Long Island, who got accepted to every single Ivy League school. Knowing the extreme amount of luck and skill it takes to get into just one, the fact that Kwasi was able to get into one, let alone eight, is an incredible achievement.
(03/23/14 6:50pm)
“A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.”
(03/03/14 7:02pm)
Just one of the many texts and missed calls I received when I woke up last fall after my friend, as a light-hearted prank, had changed my Facebook status to “Leaving for the semester, can’t wait to see you guys next year!”
(02/18/14 8:05pm)
Two weeks ago, famed Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman —known for his roles in major films like Capote, The Ides of March and The Hunger Games— was found dead in his apartment of apparent heroin overdose.
(02/03/14 10:50pm)
Last week, news broke that the Department of Justice would seek the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who, along with his deceased brother, was allegedly responsible for the bombings during the Boston Marathon last year, taking the lives of three people. According to Attorney General Eric Holder, “[t]he nature of the conduct at issue and the resultant harm compel this decision.”
(12/12/13 10:20pm)
While trying (and failing miserably) to finish up an essay in the study room in Holder basement, I suddenly felt the urge to go to the bathroom. Right as I was about to return, my phone buzzed with a cryptic response “Don’t come back. Assassins.”
(12/11/13 10:31pm)
Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” Allocating $120,000 in her will to sue "corrupt" educational institutions, it seems that Eleanor Lewis took his advice seriously.
(11/21/13 9:30pm)
Walking outside, one can see the many TV vans that clutter Nassau Street and the reporters —microphones in hand and cameramen in tow —who have invaded campus. And no, they aren’t here to cover the football team.
(11/05/13 10:11pm)
Some people forget their jackets on the Street. Others forget to turn in their problem sets on time. I forget that I’m Asian.
(10/08/13 9:49pm)
Saturday morning, my Facebook feed appeared more like a physics problem set than English, as posts mostly consisted of a wide array of Greek letters. What some may have potentially mistaken for a Facebook language settings malfunction was actually the beginning of sorority pledging.