A cornucopia of cheer

This line of thinking is symptomatic of an unfortunate part of campus culture: People attend performances or athletic events only to support their friends. This doesn’t apply to everyone, or every single group, but I don’t think I’m wrong in sensing this overall pattern.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with supporting your friends. I couldn’t encourage it more. If you have a friend in a dance troupe, go see his or her show; if you have a friend in a play, go see it; if you know an athlete, go watch that team’s games. That’s part of being a good friend. But if you’ve ever gone to these events, you’ll know they’re really fun. So why not go to events for the sake of the event?

This is essentially the problem that I see: People only go to events if their friends are in them, and that’s a shame. There are tons of absolutely fantastic events that can be enjoyed regardless of whether you know the performers. Princeton has 36 fantastic varsity sports teams, 15 of which won Ivy League championships last year. We have some immensely talented musical ensembles, including an orchestra whose performance this past weekend was worth much more than the $10 it charged to the public. There are lots of entertaining dance troupes, theater productions, improv comedy acts, a cappella groups, creative thesis productions and other assorted performing groups. On any given weekend, there are at least a few events put on by student groups or athletic teams that are bound to be awesome.

And they’re all essentially free. Free! It’s hard to overstate how incredible this fact is. You’re not going to be able to have that bargain once you graduate, so you might as well take advantage of it now.

The main premise of my argument is the prediction that you will enjoy going to events that your friends aren’t in. Admittedly, that statement might not be true for all performances. You might be unimpressed by a play, uninterested by jazz or find basketball boring. It’s possible.

Or you might come away having an absolute blast at all of those examples, and this has been my experience. Princeton encourages students to try out new activities, and that’s great, but you should also try attending unfamiliar performances. This doesn’t need to replace other socializing — it is socializing! One night with your friends, go to a random concert, play or game. Even if you do, you’ll have time for a nice long pregame before the Street, or just hanging out afterward. And I know Princeton students are always concerned with having enough time for work, which might be a good reason to stay home for a particular night, but most times two hours of leisure won’t kill you.

I admit I’m a hypocrite. I’ve only seen a few performances that don’t involve friends or my extracurricular groups. But that’s because my two extracurricular groups — the band and WPRB Sports — support and cover our athletic teams. I’ve dedicated my Friday and Saturday evenings to watching Princeton sports and haven’t regretted a moment of it, even though I don’t know the athletes personally. I love sports, love watching them, love our teams and love supporting them with my friends. And I would certainly encourage everyone to try coming to games, even if you don’t know if you’ll enjoy them.

But I would equally encourage people to go to other performances. My performance category of choice has been athletics, but yours might be concerts, or plays or anything — it doesn’t matter, as long as you take advantage of these opportunities.

Perhaps it’s the wistful senior in me talking. But when I think about what I’ll do for leisure next year on a limited budget in a to-be-determined location, I hope that there’s a university near me that offers similarly high-quality performances for relatively cheap prices; it’s the only way I’ll be able to afford going to games, plays, concerts and other shows. And then I realize — I already have all that on any given weekend night. Entertainment is entertainment regardless of who’s performing, and you should take advantage of it.

I have a challenge for all current freshmen. We have a ton of sports, music, theatre, dance and miscellaneous performing groups. Try and see each of them at least once. You’ll run into a few events that you don’t totally love, but I guarantee you’ll run into many more that you do. Take it from someone who’s (knock on wood) graduating in three months — take advantage of this place while you can because it has so much more to offer than you realize.

Alec Slatky is a politics major from Massapequa Park, NY. He can be reached at aslatky@princeton.edu.