Learning to laugh

special video edition of the Whitmaniac

For weeks I have heard Bernie D’Amato ’13, this week’s featured Whitmaniac, screaming from Hutton’s laptop as he edited the video, but now that he has been trapped as a scared still image on Whitman’s round tables and immortalized on the Internet, rumor has it his newfound fame has forced him into hiding.

The video was released at the end of a controversial semester, if I may call it that. Weeks of intense debate and strong opinionated rants seem to have become part and parcel of our grade-deflated, competitive lives. But every now and then, we may sit back and revel together in something that just makes us laugh. That is what the Whitmaniac video is to me: a much-needed break from everything. Perhaps we all need one.

I know I do. For little did I know how things were going to change for me this semester. I’ve gone from having no midterms as a freshman to having six (I have five classes, and to this day, I’m still not sure what really happened). I had to dance in class (which sounds fun, but you try dancing in front of professors). Most importantly, though, I am now terrified of chickpeas and have to look away when someone says the H-word. And from a ‘Prince’ columnist standpoint, my friend recently told me: “You know, Zeerak, when I read your first column, I thought maybe two years from now, I can tell freshmen that I used to be roommates with that guy. Then I read your second column. Now I’m just going to have to write a scathing response.” I’m not quite sure how much that has to do with my failure to hear my alarm before he did all of last year. But add a couple of tests here and there, and I seem to really have no idea what I’m doing. But with being constantly challenged and going at each other’s necks all the time — most recently, with feminism and No Fat Talk Week — I can’t help but revel in the things that we all collectively love and cherish, like the new Whitmaniac video.

For all of us — especially me — the video has been a reminder of how the brilliance of those around us does not always need to be a competitive threat. The best approach is to sit back and revel in the intellect and genius around me. If my constantly declining GPA is any evidence, my “competition” isn’t getting any dumber.

Every now and then, with things like this video, a post on PrincetonFML.com, the odd Tiger magazine prank and (dare I say it) Robot Unicorn Attack, I am reminded that behind all the harsh politics, competitiveness and grade deflation lies a community that is willing to have a laugh together. And while campus issues will often get us riled up, we can all chill a little. Things don’t need to be too extreme.

And so after 10 days of weddings in Lahore, Pakistan, I’m looking forward to coming back to lose my mind along with everyone else the night before Dean’s Date. We bicker, we compete, we argue, we fight — but at the end of day, we should still be a community that can sit back and have a good laugh.

Zeerak Ahmed is a sophomore from Lahore, Pakistan. He can be reached at zahmed@princeton.edu.