Reaching across boundaries the whole year through

Coming back to campus in the fall is a surreal — and somewhat disheartening — experience. After spending a summer away from Princeton doing any number of things, one expects life to be a little different. We're all a year older and perhaps a year wiser. We all have had some time away and, hopefully, return to school with a fresh outlook, a new perspective, ready to take on the challenges that any year at Princeton offers.

What I've found these past few days, however, is that almost nothing has changed. Sure, my room is in a new dorm; different people pass by me on the hallway. Little Hall has been finished and Dod and East Pyne are now being renovated. Yet, aside from these superficial differences in the physical plant of Princeton, everything else seems static.

Instead of the opportunity to begin with a clean slate, I find everyone, myself included, falling back into stereotypes, back into the roles we've established in social groups, clubs and teams. This is, of course, natural, and I am not criticizing the way we want to spend time with our friends we haven't seen in months. Yet, in my experience, I have found exclusivity to be heightened at this time of the year. People only want to talk to their old friends. Other than freshmen, no one seems to be willing to meet new people.

This wouldn't be so discouraging if I knew that as the year went on it would change. In the past three years I've been here, however, this hasn't been the case. Students seem to find a group and stick with it. This is not to say that we never meet anyone new. On the whole, however, I have found that we like to stay in our groups.

Talking to a number of students back from either quiet summers working at home or amazing ones filled with overseas travel and mind-expanding experiences, I have heard the same complaint: Princeton seems boring, repetitive and, worst of all, confining. Though I concur with this, the idea of Princeton University — U.S. News and World Report's number one school, filled with America's best and brightest minds — as confining strikes me as absurd. How can this be so?

Perhaps we as students should, instead of staying with our set social group, try to meet other people. Isn't this time of both academic and residential new beginnings a perfect frame for at least starting new acquaintances and friendships? What about those students who we 'sort of know' — from precept, the 'Street' or just constant passing? Who knows what they have to offer us if we only stop, say hello and engage them in conversation past "How was your summer?" And not only should we meet these people but try to stay in contact with them.

Students, alumni and faculty consistently comment that Princeton's greatest resource is not Firestone Library, not its Nobel Prize winners, but the student body itself. Who knows what wonderful ideas, experiences and attitudes a few people from outside your comfort zone could bring to you?

As I said, I am not immune to my own criticism and am as much at fault for falling back into set social patterns. There is definitely a risk in putting yourself out there to meet someone new. Perhaps, though, if we all tried a new attitude of openness and acceptance, this danger could be lessened, and we could make these beautiful Gothic walls means of liberation, rather than confinement. And we would also be able to fully understand why we are number one. John Lurz is an English major from Lutherville, MD. He can be reached at johnlurz@princeton.edu.