Transitioning from one year to the next at Princeton can be challenging. There is often the whiplash that emerges from transitioning from a restful summer recess to the rush of chaos that being back on campus brings. For some, transitioning from a summer internship to a stacked semester provides no break at all. Regardless, the demarcations between academic years at Princeton are often heavy and emotionally charged. But as I find myself in my new title of upperclassman, with two fulfilling years at Princeton under my belt, I feel strangely at ease.
Last Spring, I declared my major, pronouncing the Department of Comparative Literature as my home for my final two years. Now situated in this department, this is the first semester where all of my classes are humanities-oriented. My weeks are hence a blissful rush of composing poems for my poetry course, reading sections of a famous poet’s biography for my feminist life-writing class, working on my ‘CompLit’ independent research, and analyzing Harlem Renaissance poetry for my New York and Black literature class. My weeks are quite reading-heavy, and I will admit that there are evenings when the words on the pages start swirling around me. Still, for the first time in my Princeton experience, I feel that my homework and classwork are reflective of what I envisioned years ago for my time at Princeton. I’m immersed in the world of literature, and it’s pretty fulfilling.
This is also my first year off of Princeton’s mandatory dining-hall plan. As an underclassman, you are required to elect Princeton’s dining plan that affords you unlimited meal swipes: this guarantees you a meal three times a day on weekdays and twice a day on weekends. This system is incredibly nurturing during the two years in which students transition from the safety net of living at home to the whirl that is quasi-adulthood on campus. However, for picky eaters with sporadic cravings (like myself!), it can be somewhat limiting. As an upperclassman, your meal plan is your choice. You can remain on the dining hall plan, join an eating club, or be independent! Being independent essentially means that you cook (or buy food) for yourself. Many independents also choose to join co-ops — communal eating spaces that provide nightly dinners.
I’m currently an independent in the Brown Hall Co-Op, and this has been one of the more rewarding parts of my transition to upperclassmanhood. My weekly ‘cook-shifts’ have been a welcome study break where I can decompress from the stress of the week by doing something I love — cooking for friends! And my cookshift partners and I have done our best to make the menu creative on nights when we cook. So far, we’ve done an end-of-summer barbecue, taco night, General Tso’s chicken, and breakfast for dinner. Even on evenings when I’m not tasked with cooking, I often use the co-op space to make meals for just myself, reveling in my independence and experimenting with recipes I wouldn’t have been able to try without access to a kitchen on campus.
Despite all the welcome changes that being an upperclassman has brought, being on Princeton’s campus for (almost) two-and-a-half years has begun to feel a little stifling. Witnessing the same sites, falling into the all-too-familiar routines, I have been feeling as though I needed a change — a break from the monotony, a burst out of my comfort zone. Resultantly, and somewhat off the cuff, I applied to study abroad in Paris in the Spring. To my surprise, my application was accepted. As much as I look forward to a new journey in a new city, I know that I would not be ready for an opportunity like this without the maturity that my time at Princeton has afforded me.
As I go further into the second half of my Princeton career, I know there is nowhere left to go but up! And although this used to daunt me, right now, all it brings is excitement.