Usually, I spend Easter with my family. We all go to church, eat lunch at my grandparents’ house, and spend the remainder of the day resting and reflecting on our risen Savior. However, since I live a little over 10 hours away from Princeton — by car — I celebrated Easter this year with my Princeton peeps. As I look back on our Easter extravaganzas, I realize how much we actually did and all the memories we made — and how I still felt like I was surrounded by family.
After getting all dressed up and eating breakfast at Whitman, the only residential college open before 10:00 a.m. on the weekends, my friends and I made our way to Ecclesia’s 10:00 a.m. church service. Ecclesia, located right in downtown Princeton, is one of many churches Princeton students attend. On this Easter Sunday, some Ecclesia members had hung streams of decorative flowers on the ceiling; we sang songs and heard a great message while the flowers beautifully dangled overhead. I always enjoy Ecclesia’s services, as the pastors are beyond knowledgeable and welcoming and everybody is very kind. Once service ended, we then took a group picture at an Easter-themed photo booth outside of the service/worship area. My friends and I are extremely grateful to have such a wonderful church, whose Easter message reminded us that Jesus’ resurrection marked the start of something new: the free gift of new life, one filled with never-ending grace and mercy and unified with God.
Just as service ended around 11:30 a.m., we headed toward Sakrid Coffee Roasters, or Sakrid, a coffee shop near the Graduate Hotel, because our fantastic Residential College Adviser, or RCA, was hosting a zee-group study break there. We have zee-group study breaks very often, and they are always such a great way to catch up with everybody. Since course selection for the fall-2025 semester was the week prior, we discussed how things went — my course selection went well, but that was unfortunately not the case for some of my fellow zees. After our RCA offered us some guidance on courses, she reminded us of the sad fact that we only have a few more study breaks left. Our zee group is really close, so the thought of having a final study break is crazy to consider. (We have all decided, though, that we will still try to have some get-togethers/study breaks throughout sophomore year as well.) Although the study break at Sakrid is one of our lasts as freshmen, it was a nice time to just relax and enjoy off-campus Princeton with good friends.
We made another trip to the town area of Princeton that night. After a much-needed nap and a good dinner at RoMa, some of my friends mentioned going out for ice cream at Halo Pub. As someone who loves all types of desserts, I was down for some ice cream! At Halo Pub, the flavor I chose was so good it was an alliteration: chocolate chocolate chip. We then walked back to our dorm hall and enjoyed our ice cream outside together. I have such a bad sweet tooth, though, so after finishing our ice cream, I suggested that we stop by Murray-Dodge Café to delight in some delicious cookies as well! At the time we went to Murray-Dodge Café, there was not a large variety of cookies, but the ones we got were still really good! Getting some sweets was definitely a solid end to a fun-filled day.
Although I was not with my family on Easter, I would still say I was with my family – just a different kind. In my Writing Seminar, Friendship, one of the concepts I discussed in my final research paper was how friends can be family. When you are in college, away from your actual family, you notice that your friendships naturally start to feel familial, as you and your friends spend time with, support, and share love and appreciation for one another. For me, this Easter was a great reminder of both the new life we have in Jesus and the beautiful ways that friends can simultaneously be family.