Princeton's mental health obligation
“So what exactly did you do on your year off?” I always pause before answering this question.
“So what exactly did you do on your year off?” I always pause before answering this question.
You, as well as I, have probably grown tired of hearing the same critiques of the matchmakerly advice given by Susan Patton ’77 — that she entrenches antifeminist ideas or is closed-mindedly elitist and gender normative.
Since I took a year off, I openly tell my friends that I struggle with anxiety and depression, and talk without shame about my regular sessions with a therapist.
“But lo! Men have become the tools of their tools.” -Henry David Thoreau It is now abundantly clear that we need to do something to manage the role of technology in our lives.
In middle school in England, my friends and I used to entertain ourselves by exchanging overdrawn imitations of the stereotypical American valley girl: “Let’s, like, go to the mall!” “OMG, I like, love, like, that shirt!” Feeling smug, I sniggered and mocked, certain I’d never actually talk that way. So I was horrified a few weeks ago when I relistened to an interview I had done for a journalism assignment and discovered that the word “like” featured in almost every sentence.
A few weeks ago, I got a C. The letter, scrawled in the corner and circled for emphasis, burned into my retinas the moment I flipped over the paper at the end of precept.
“Until you conquer the fear of being an outsider, an outsider you will remain.”-C.S. Lewis, “The Inner Ring” Gathering dust in my closet at home is a collection of sweatshirts that I can’t seem to bring myself to throw out.
During many mornings this past summer, I wandered into the kitchen to see my father, a retired investment banker, hunched intentlyover his laptop, headphones on and scribbling notes.
My grandmother, as she sips on her 5 p.m. gin and tonic, frequently dispenses the following piece of wisdom: “If you have as many friends as you do fingers on one hand, you’re incredibly lucky.” This is a woman who has been happily married for 50 years now and has reached the melancholic, yet inevitable, stage of life when friends begin to pass away, leaving more empty seats at her dinner parties every year.
Having just re-entered the world of academia after a year off from Princeton, I reckon now is a good time to think more deeply about what I’m getting from my formal education.