The cover of Friday's 'Prince' featured a picture of Wilson School seniors taking part in the traditional post-thesis dip in the Scudder Plaza fountain. For these seniors — whose department has one of the earlier thesis deadlines — the time of celebration has come. Weekends ring with new freedom, and spring days can be enjoyed in the outdoors, rather than through the Firestone skylights. To those seniors whose deadlines still loom: be heartened and keep plugging away; your day of celebration and remembrance will soon be at hand.
But this is also a time for remembering, as four of life's most formative years near an end. While lost in their work, many seniors may have missed some of the activities — room draw and the beginnings of course selection, for example — that make this time of year exciting for students returning in September.
The Prince Opinion Board consists entirely of juniors, and perhaps we are unfit to comment significantly on what writing a thesis really represents. However, one thing seems fairly clear even to us: The thesis is often more meaningful as a rite of passage than as a purely intellectual experience. There is something significant, in itself, about burrowing away in a carrel for days a time, all alone, and simply getting the work done. In the end, theses are important not only for their intellectual weight but also for the discipline and endurance they require. Well beyond the scope of any underclassman assignment and far beyond even the junior paper, the thesis is perhaps our first truly "adult" body of work. We think it would be rare for a senior not to feel, in at least some way, stronger for having completed it.
The post-thesis days are glad ones for non-seniors as well. After weeks of only quick, sporadic chats with senior friends always headed "back to work," it seems their social black hole may be opening back up. Catching a senior enjoying a long meal or a night at the Street can be like seeing an old friend. There is, one feels, a lot to catch up on. — The Daily Princetonian Opinion Board
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