Enough complaining, already

"Midterms." Simply this word — along with "Finals" — makes every student shudder. There is too much work, too much reading to catch up on and no way anyone can cram everything into his or her head by the examination date. At least, that is what many people are saying. Nothing is wrong with complaining once in a while, but it seems as if for many it has become a habitual conversation starter to moan about all the papers they have to write, all the pages they have to read and the various other things that have to be done — for class or for other activities.

Have we forgotten where we are? Would it not be very strange if we could all just coast through one of the best schools in the world without putting any effort into it? Given that we are intelligent — or else we would not be here — we should still have to work hard and put a lot of effort into what we are trying to accomplish.

Ever since the beginning of the year, I heard about how the reading for this course does not have to be done, how the papers for that course are short, how those exams will be easy. There is, of course, nothing wrong with an easy course, but if people always try to find the easiest way to succeed — to get through college with good grades and without putting much effort into it — why are they here? Sure, having graduated from Princeton looks good on a resume, but only because whoever reads the resume assumes a person has to work hard to make it through Princeton and that he or she has learned to deal with a certain amount of work in a limited amount of time. Obviously, most students do learn that here and do do their work, but why is it always with grumbling and complaining? It just seems to contradict every reason we all might have had for coming here.

There is nothing wrong with feeling there is too much to do once in a while, that too many deadlines are in one day or that it would be impossible to stay up another night. But those should be the exceptions and not the rule. Why is it that many seem to procrastinate up to the last minute? Do we lack the study skills or knowledge of time management?

And why is it considered to be essential to answer every "How are you?" with a "Fine, but I have so much work"? It does seem that, to many, admitting that the workload they have is fine or that it is doable is out of the question. This attitude, certainly, does not seem to fit into the picture one has of Princeton — an intellectual community, interested in learning for the sake of learning.

I may be judging the student body too harshly; maybe the silent majority is fine with the required work and studying. Maybe it is just a freshman thing to say, something that stayed with us from high school. And yet it seems almost impossible to find someone who says that while there is a lot of reading and writing, it is not too much and actually fun and interesting. Why is this? Why can we not admit that we might actually enjoy studying or gaining a new and deeper understanding? If it's not 'socially acceptable' here, where else could it be? Nicoletta Mueller-Vogg is from Bad Homburg, Germany. She can be reached at nicolett@princeton.edu.