When I first arrived on campus, I was apprehensive. There was only one other student from Honduras, and I was afraid of not adapting to American culture. Fortunately, during orientation, I attended one of the events organized by Princeton Latinos y Amigos. I was surprised by how welcoming the Latinx community was.

Back home, everyone was Honduran in my high school. I also went from speaking Spanish on a daily basis to only English. With the friends I made on campus, I was able to share why Honduras is an amazing country. I told them how much I missed the delicious food, great people and lively music.

Whenever I attended an event by Princeton Latinos y Amigos, I felt like I was back home. This is why I decided to be part of the board for the organization. As the current social media co-chair, I help organize events like Latinx Heritage Month, Posadas and the Fall Gala. There are many nationalities represented on the board, and we all bond over good food and Hispanic music. The board has become a second family to me, especially the upperclassmen who share advice on how to navigate academics at Princeton. They are people who I can count on and approach with any questions or concerns. I am always inspired by their achievements.

I am very grateful to the Latinx community for making me feel like I belong. There are several organizations, just like Princeton Latinos y Amigos that celebrate different ethnicities like the Black Student Union and the Chinese Students Association. My message to prospective students is that, no matter your race or nationality, you will find a home at Princeton.

It’s no secret that students at Princeton work hard in and out of the classroom. With skilled time-management, most Princetonians are able to avoid pulling all-nighters, but there’s likely not a student on campus who hasn’t had to stay awake late working on an assignment at least once. Some students tend to prefer studying alone when up late at night, but many of my friends and I take our few long evenings as an opportunity to enjoy each other’s company. Princeton kids tend to be ambitious and have the packed schedules to prove it. During the busiest weeks of the school year, (midterms and finals!) forming study groups can prove to be a much-needed social break.

Many students love to work with their friends later in the night at Murray-Dodge Café, a cozy spot on campus where students can pick up free fresh-baked cookies and tea. Most residential buildings on campus have elaborate basement areas with seating, tables, and study spaces, and it’s not uncommon to see entire first-year advisee groups crowded around tables in their residential halls as they all type away on their computers. Additionally, all residential college libraries are open 24-hours; seeing your friends in your college’s study space at odd hours goes a long way toward developing a college community.

Another element of the late-night study experience is grabbing a bite to eat with friends. Stopping by the train station Wawa, a convenience store, is a popular option for students in Forbes and Whitman colleges, and the hot food they serve late into the night is great study fuel. The Princeton University Store, or the “U-Store,” as it’s known to students, is extremely close to Rocky and Mathey colleges, as well as the bulk of upperclass student housing; it’s not uncommon to see a line stretching to the back of the store at 1 a.m. as hungry students stock up on snacks to get them down the home stretch. Students in Butler and Wilson colleges can stop by Studio '34, a convenience store-style late night snack stop known for its French bread pizzas and communal atmosphere.

Some of my fondest memories at school have been intermixed with the stress of a last-minute assignment or impending deadline. Friends and I have made little homes — replete with blankets, pillows and ample snacks — in the corners of library basements as we alternate between laughing at ourselves and actual productivity. I always tend to find that cookies in the eclectic varieties they make at Murray Dodge (peanut butter mint, M&M black tea or vegan lemon) make the prospect of going to bed at 2 a.m. a little less scary. 

I’ll admit, I’m not much of a late-night studier.  I usually try to be in bed by midnight — a goal that’s totally manageable for Princeton students! But time gets away from us all, and there are definitely days where I find myself traipsing to the U-Store in the wee hours or holing up in Mathey library. In a way, studying late at night with friends encapsulates what it’s like to be a student at Princeton. An interest in academic success, something nearly every student here shares, serves as a point of connection and an opportunity to forge the deeper bonds we’ll carry with us for the rest of our lives. 

This past summer, I completed an internship at the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) in Gaithersburg, Maryland. I applied for and accepted the internship through a program at Princeton, Princeton Internships in Civic Service, which provides students funding to complete otherwise unpaid internships in the public service sector. During my two months at the HSUS, I worked in the Public Relations department, and gained a treasure trove of valuable experience that will hopefully translate to positions I take in the future.

I’ve always been a big animal lover, so working at the Humane Society of the United States—whose central aim is to make the country a safer, more humane place for animals to coexist with humans—was a natural fit. My day-to-day work consisted largely of drafting press releases and emails, researching and interfacing with reporters, tracking news coverage of the organization and writing tweets for the HSUS Public Relations Twitter account. 

However, every single day in the office was different! There were always a bevy of miscellaneous projects I could help work on if I’d already completed my daily tasks, and across departments people were always happy to have help from an intern. There were also many dedicated intern events at the office, which served as opportunities both to learn more about the larger HSUS organization and to meet interns who worked in different fields or areas of the building. On multiple occasions, we didn’t even report to the office for work; instead, we got to travel around the D.C. area and participate in experimental food tastings (the future of college cafeterias is bright!) and professional development trainings. 

One of the coolest things I did during my experience at the HSUS was participating in my first Animal Rescue Team mission. One rainy weekend, my coworkers and I traveled to a small airport in Virginia where we helped unload approximately 100 animals off a plane they’d been loaded onto in Mississippi, where they were rescued from a severe domestic cruelty situation. Helping the animals off the plane and then sending them off to their future shelter homes (and, hopefully, forever homes after that!) was such a gratifying experience and alone would have made the internship worthwhile. 

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Prior to my work with the Humane Society of the United States, I’d not had any hands-on experience with the nonprofit sector or its inner workings. My summer in Gaithersburg, though, demonstrated to me not only valuable professional skills but also the immensely commendable physical, mental and emotional effort that goes into working for a better world.

There are several housing options at Princeton. Students can choose to live in a single, double or in a quad. I live in a quad, and I must admit, it is pretty amazing. Quads consist of two bedrooms connected with a common room. You get to bond with your roommates and learn to live with other people.

In the weeks before the start of classes, my roommates and I started to buy items for the common room. One of our first bonding experiences was carrying a couch from one end of campus to the other. The couch was heavy, it was 80 degrees outside, and we lived on the third floor. We felt very accomplished that day.

One of the first things you notice when you walk into our common room are the flags. My quad is pretty international; my roommates are from Colombia, Italy and Sweden, and I am from Honduras. I enjoy listening to my roommates’ stories about growing up and what they miss most from home. I also feel reassured that I am not the only one adjusting to American culture and that we are in it together.

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Even though we all share the common room and part of the bedrooms, we each get personal spaces. I decided to decorate my desk with family pictures and a big whiteboard calendar. I also hang posters about my favorite TV shows next to my bed. For me, a quad is the perfect living situation because if I want privacy I can be in my bedroom, and if I am feeling social I can hang out in the common room. It is the best of both worlds.

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Coming into Princeton, I thought I wanted my own space and to live in a single, but living in a quad has been an incredible experience. My roommates have become my best friends on campus. No matter what your living situation is at Princeton, there will be advantages and disadvantages, but I encourage prospective students to consider living with roommates for their first few years.

I still remember the day my roommates and I moved into our quad our first year here, with bustling containers filled to the brim with clothes and supplies and frothy introductions in voices two octaves too high. I had already spent three nights in our room because International Orientation (IO) had started a few days before regular Orientation (a blur that was no match for jetlag).

My first weeks here were strung together by the theme of being lost but not wanting to pull out the color-coded map Princeton kindly provided for fear of appearing like (gasp) a first-year. Also memorable was the constant flux of confusion present in any audience when I told them my name in introduction.

“How do you spell that?”, they’d ask, politely.

“Zet, Ee, X-…”

“…Zet?”

It took a few weeks to extract stray weeds of Malaysian slang from my English. The International Orientation leaders had warned us of the American tendency to ask “how are you?” before walking off just as you conjure up a good summary of your day. (I’ll keep you updated on whether I ever respond to “what’s up?” with anything but “…the ceiling?”).

I’m sure there must have been a time when I doubted if I would ever feel like this campus had a place for me, too — but that time is as long gone as the color-coded map I once stole looks at when I thought no one was looking. There’s hardly room for feeling like you don’t belong when you’re shoulder-to-shoulder with an assignment partner in the trenches of a problem set, or in the cavern of bugs present in code written too late at night.

When I look back on my first year here, all I see is awkward small talk quickly dissolving into a chorus of Disney songs managed while juggling balloons, trips to New York stolen between papers, and study breaks spent arguing over what a biscuit should look like.

(A biscuit is nearly exactly like a cookie.)

Light cascaded through the curved windows as we slopped paint onto the wall.

Mural painting occurred in shifts. First, actually applying the paint. Second, stepping away from the wall to make sure that you could see the entire picture. And third, convincing yourself that the last stripe you painted on the tiger wasn’t the wrong color. Now picture this activity in a curved stairwell, where the tiger looks different depending on the angle. And where there really isn’t much room for you to step back so that you’re sufficiently far from the wall, at least not without flopping your left foot into the welcoming mouth of an orange paint bucket.

As a designer for the Student Design Agency, I work on design projects for various departments at Princeton. This mural was larger than most projects, so I had the opportunity to work with two other designers. Since I was a new member, I hadn’t met either of them before, but that did not stop us from quickly falling in tandem — passing each other brushes of the right size, ducking out of the way when someone had to paint above the current location of your head and quickly handing along the drop cloth when an inevitable drop of paint trickled down the wrong part of the wall.

Only a week before, I had sketched out the design and sent it to the client who commissioned it for approval. It felt like a grander-than-life ordeal, tracking an idea from a thought to a sketch, to 9 feet of curved stairwell.

The issue with working in a stairwell is that of post-event foot traffic where, at times, we had to politely suggest the use of an elevator. But not to worry we benefited by taking one too many breaks to eat tortilla chips leftover from the event. Tortilla chips over salsa, laughter and the scrutiny of drying paint.

The beautiful thing about Princeton is that it gives you many opportunities to create — in whatever form you want, and in the time and the space that best suits you. And in exchange, it feels great to literally leave your mark on these walls.

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Though I have become well accustomed to the University (the life, work and environment) by this time in my studies, there remains a short list of things that continue to stand out and surprise me again and again about this place. Some of those things are mundane; others, peculiar or regrettable, yet most noteworthy are those wonderful moments I have had on campus that remind me of the joys of being here.

With that description, you may think I’m referring to the outstanding opportunities that are accessible at Princeton. Indeed, it seems as if students here are always participating in events led by influential officials, prize-winners and others; attending spectacular plays, concerts, and productions; or most excitingly, venturing into other cities and countries as part of a class, performing group or other University-sponsored program.

Certainly, those opportunities represent a very special aspect of Princeton. But the things I mentioned earlier, those wonderful moments that define my experience here, are quite ordinary. They’re the chance meetings with friends in Murray-Dodge Café as we wait together for fresh cookies; the last few stories and laughs shared with my roommate in our dorm as we set our alarms and prepare for tomorrow; the resolution I feel when I get up after finishing a book or essay to pace the quiet floors of Firestone Library. These things are all so plain, yet I have found an extraordinary appreciation for them, and they are some of the best things I’ve experienced here at Princeton.

It’s important to say that this isn’t just some way of looking at things with rose-tinted glasses, a strategy for convincing myself that “everything is awesome.” I’ve had the chance to appreciate standout events (like moderated conversations with Gustavo Dudamel and Joyce Carol Oates or trips to see Broadway plays and hear Supreme Court oral arguments), but those are only a few moments of my time as a student. The rest of that time is spent doing normal, everyday things, and it is a simple appreciation for those things that really makes my Princeton experience noteworthy.

This year, I’ve had the opportunity to take part in an exciting program that operates somewhat under the radar in the Princeton community -- the English Language Program (ELP). The ELP, which works mostly with graduate students, aims to help non-native English speaking Princeton students become more comfortable within the Princeton community. By pairing them with an undergraduate student for a weekly get-together, non-native English speaking Princeton students are able to gain confidence in their English language skills. Those meetings provide an opportunity for casual conversations about student life, holidays, sports, food or whatever seems relevant that week.

When I joined the program, I was paired with two STEM graduate students from China, Hui and Hauxi. Hui studies Molecular Biology and Hauxi studies Electrical Engineering. I’ve enjoyed getting to know them over the course of a semester. We’ve explored the various dining halls on campus, gone hiking on the towpath, discussed the major cultural differences between the United States and China and toured my dorm room (which didn’t take long).

We’ve had some fun meetings, talking about the “holiday season” in the United States and the various ways in which people at Princeton celebrate different holidays. As part of our discussion, we made and decorated delicious Christmas cookies, which we shared with friends. Then, we went to the Center for Jewish Life where we braided Challah bread for a local charity and lit Hanukkah candles.

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I look forward to my Thursday afternoon meetings with two amazing people who I may not have had the opportunity to meet outside of the ELP, a program that reinforces the powerful diversity of the Princeton community. 

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On a winter afternoon, I set out with my friends, Hannah and Jake, for an impromptu visit to New York City. Our primary objective was to attend the 2019 New York Jewish Film Festival, though our chosen film, “Autonomies,” was already sold out. So, as we boarded the train, our excitement for the trip was tempered by the knowledge that our plan to try for standby tickets might not work, and we’d have to find something else to do in the Big Apple. Our excursion was funded by Princeton's Center for Jewish Life (CJL), which is always looking for ways to give students new opportunities to connect to their Jewish identities. 

Our train ride featured plenty of laughter, including each person telling the story of their first concert (mine was Taylor Swift, Jake’s was Zusha and Hannah’s was A Great Big World). Before we knew it, we’d reached the city and Jake, the native New Yorker, expertly guided us to the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, where the movie was set to take place. 

As we waited, we marveled over the beauty of the Lincoln Center at night, popped into the Metropolitan Opera for a look, and talked about our next adventure. After scoring the standby seats, we went inside. The mini-series was directed by Yehonatan Indursky, producer of the show “Shtisel,” which I had recently binge-watched with my little brother over winter break. Indursky was in New York for a Q&A session after the movie, so we settled in for what was sure to be an exciting night.

“Autonomies” has a plot so incredibly complex, nuanced and dramatic that no summary can do it justice. It tells the story of an alternate reality in Israel, which is depicted as a country literally divided in two by a barrier. We left the theater energized, drained and full of questions. We marveled over the plot and its complexities and lamented the ways in which we saw connections between this terrifying dystopian reality and current events. It made us realize how much division and violence have become an expected part of our reality today.

Although initially exhilarated by the excitement of the night, we were all soon taking turns dosing off on our train ride back to campus, dreaming about New York adventures and dystopian worlds. 

Our adventure was in the middle of finals week at a time that we absolutely could have been spending every waking moment studying. That said, the fact that a Princeton group (the CJL) gave us the funding and means to take a break and try something new shows that despite Princeton’s intensity, there are more than enough opportunities (and resources) to live life and make friends. 

My first stay inside a Princeton dorm was so-so. As a recently admitted high school senior, I was on campus attending Princeton Preview, a one-and-a-half-day program that included an overnight stay for admitted students. I lodged with my host and his roommates in Little Hall, one of several beautiful, Gothic buildings that make up Mathey Residential College.

To be clear, the accommodations were not uncomfortable in any way. I only felt that the dorm did not seem quite like a home or a homey place you could happily return to after a long day of studying. The place was slightly untidy and sparsely decorated, as if its occupants had moved in only yesterday, and not eight months ago. It was not at all like what I had seen on college websites and video tours of dorms. Still, my host seemed pleased with it and I soon forgot about its deficiencies.

The experience came to mind a few months later, when I moved into my dorm as a first-year student. The place was bare except for the same basic furnishings I had found in my host’s room. Weeks later, it would still have empty walls, though textbooks, shoes and papers would spot the floor. My roommates and I did clean fairly often with our Swiffer and vacuum, and we did consider purchasing some decor, but for the most part the place resembled my host’s messy and undecorated room.

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There was one difference, though. In my host’s room, I was a visitor, only there for a night. My own dorm, however, was familiar to me, and I was its resident. I knew its dimensions. I knew there was a small dent in the wall from the time I swung the closet door too quickly. I knew where one of my roommates stored his chocolate, and also that we’d have some later while laughing about something funny. I knew the missing water bottle on the mini-fridge meant my second roommate was at the gym, while my third roommate’s strident whistling meant he was working on math problems. I knew this and more about our room, which had become our home.

This past spring, my roommates and I hosted six admitted high school students for the Princeton Preview program. They probably did not think much of our room, but one day they might have a home just like it.