Survivors at reunions

Last Thursday, in a not-so-rare moment of post-thesis sloth, I tuned in to CBS for the "Survivor II" season finale. I had planned to watch only the final episode, skipping the reunion show that would follow so that I might, well, write this column (such are the difficulties of a 'Prince' columnist). Plans change, however, and instead of hitting the Thinkpad, I ended up sacrificing yet another hour of prime writing time to the glowing rectangular god. Something about the reunion show drew me in — and made me think about graduation.

The "Survivor" reunion brought together all 16 original contestants to remember and ponder their experience in the Australian outback. After months of recuperation from the hunger and stress of the game, some of the contestants were almost unrecognizable. Those we had known as undernourished and bikini-clad were now well fed and fully clothed. They had abandoned their game mentality to offer frank commentary about, in the words of host Bryant Gumble, "hunger and hardship" and "friends and enemies."

At Reunions 2006, five years after our escape from the New Jersey outback, we, like the Survivors, will all look and act a little different. Cleaned up, better dressed, probably a few pounds heavier, we will finally see college life as the 'game' that it is. We will be unabashed to air grudges long held in silence. We will understand just how much each small act of kindness affected us, and perhaps we'll tell our friends and benefactors how we feel. We will undoubtedly remember, as the CBS survivors did, what we did wrong — and what we did right — with painful clarity.

We will probably also face some of the same questions that were posed to the "Survivor" contestants at their reunion. Do you regret any of your actions during the game? Of what actions are you proud? Would you do it all again? Hopefully, we, like "Survivor" contestant Rodger Bingham, will be able to say, "I'm not ashamed of anything I did out there." Hopefully, like third-place contestant Keith Famie, we will see personal growth and not money as the most important reward of the game.

Most importantly, I hope that we will see our years at Princeton in the proper perspective. Survivor isn't life and neither is college. Luckily, there is a way off of this scenic but stressful Ivy League island — and it's on the mainland that the fun really begins. Perhaps, five years from now, we will all be hawking Chapstick, posing for Playboy and touring the late-night talk show circuit like the veterans of the first season of "Survivor." Ideally, we will have forgotten who the 'winner' was, who betrayed us at tribal council and how many immunity challenges each of us won.

We shouldn't forget our time here, of course — I certainly hope it's been even more instructive and enjoyable than 42 days in the Australian outback. But neither should we dwell on our college failures and successes. Let Princeton be a stepping stone, not a roadblock, on the trail to bigger and better things. Congratulations, Princeton Class of 2001 — you're all survivors. Melissa Waage is a politics major from Johnson City, Tenn. She can be reached at mrwaage@princeton.edu.