Being open to new things

Despite this diversity in identity, Princeton students often choose their extracurricular activities and academic specialties for worryingly conventional reasons. Athletes play the same sport they played in high school, debaters keep debating, dancers dance and artsy people do art. We study the subjects necessary to prepare ourselves for the career we have always planned on having, and we distract ourselves with the hobbies we have always pursued. While there is tremendous creativity and talent here, there is a risk of it being applied in very conventional ways.

Princeton is proud of the numerous accomplishments of her students, and rightly so. The continued pursuit of excellence by students at Princeton never ceases to inspire, and many people will doubtlessly find themselves consistently challenged and excited by the same activities.

However, for all of the expressed talent on Princeton’s campus, there must be undiscovered abilities. We all have friends who could benefit from following their most audacious dreams — picking up an instrument, taking a new course, changing sports, or trying something they would have never dreamed of doing.

I have seen this talent first hand: a good friend of mine has started making mashups since he came to Princeton, and his tracks now get thousands of plays online. I love listening to his music, and I think that we all would be worse off if he had not branched out. If the Princeton community truly wants to produce fulfilled graduates, we must make a greater effort to give people the room necessary to reinvent themselves.

There are substantial obstacles to branching out in the Princeton environment. One significant challenge is the intense competitiveness of our school environment. The caliber of Princeton’s programs, both small and large, can lock students into the areas they are already proficient in. Branching out sometimes leads to a sea of negative reinforcement: low grades, rejection, and frustration. This is an inescapable byproduct of the high caliber of Princeton in general, but taken to the extreme it can be dangerously counterproductive for self-creation.

Perhaps the greatest problem is the stigma of failure that many Princetonians struggle with. I know that the fear of failure has limited me. In my time here, I have tried to expand beyond the areas I focused on academically in high school. I took a class on the Soviet Union last year that I found to be extremely challenging. I felt underprepared; there were students in the class who were Slavic studies concentrators and native speakers of Russian. I received my lowest grade thus far in that class and I was initially very frustrated by my performance.

It is only upon further reflection have I realized that the classes that have challenged me the most and pushed me farthest beyond my comfort zone have also been the classes that I have enjoyed the most and learned the most from. The Soviet course was a tremendous learning experience for me and I would have failed to challenge myself fully if I had not taken it.

To make Princeton more welcoming to diversification, we need to encourage some Princeton groups to be more welcoming and reject the failure-averse mentality that can haunt students.

Many Princeton groups are already welcoming to newcomers. In my freshman year, I had a great experience at the rock climbing wall run by Outdoor Action. Even though I knew next to nothing about climbing, I found the wall staff and student community welcoming. I climbed regularly and I am now a proud staff member of the climbing wall. I pursued an activity that I had always found interesting but never believed I could be proficient in. We need to cultivate this attitude of openness in more places if we want to see students pursue their authentic interests with success.

We must also resist the fear of failure when trying new things. The trips and falls associated with branching out will be painful. Princeton students are already frequently forced to readjust to the reality of no longer being the best at their preferred discipline; trying to start something new is even more intimidating. Envisioning ourselves in a new way can seem like risking everything, potentially taking away the attributes that brought us success in the past.

Luckily, while Princeton can be problematically resistant to change, there is nowhere else with greater resources to pursue our authentic interests. If we choose to push our boundaries, the tools necessary are at our fingertips. All we require is the will to act.

Evan Larson is a sophomore from San Jose, Calif. He may be reached at eklarson@princeton.edu.