A message from the chairman:
Welcome to Princeton! Welcome to the Orange Bubble! Welcome to “the best damn place of all” or so I was told last Reunions by a sixty-year old alumnus, who screamed that phrase as he threw empty beer cans at passersby from his rapidly accelerating golf cart.
As you have no doubt seen, “the best damn place of all” is the theme of this issue and a worthier phrase to describe ye’ olde Princeton University there has never been. It’s a phrase packed with much more meaning than it’s normally given credit, for contained in this oddly conflicting saying rests the entire gamut of oddly conflicting emotions that come with being a student here.
Because this place really is the best “damn” place of all. You see, when someone refers to something as “that damn place” they’re usually not using the phrase as a compliment. “That damn place” could be many things: the DMV, the airport security line, the wishing fountain where Trevor wished for a happier relationship, jury duty, the discotheque where you and Trevor had your first and last dance, the casino where Trevor (your late ex-husband who was also an undercover cop) tried to stop Don Vitellio’s mobsters, the sidewalk outside the casino, where you held Trevor in your arms, and, of course, the annual church camping trip! Ugh!
“That damn place” could be many places, but it’s always someplace where you are confronted by a situation that forces you to grow stronger. In this way, Princeton is the best “damn” place of all.
Here, one moment could see you sweating, begging for a chance to sleep, as you watch the sun fart its way up the sky deaf to your cries, while another could find you speaking with a Nobel Prize winner about the paper you sacrificed that same sleep to craft. The moments where we “damn” this school and all that it puts forward are later the ones we reflect on as defining who we have become.
It’s through the 6:00 A.M. practices, the wall-eyed nights where ramen is your only god, the terrible decision to just ‘head out to Terrace for five min” when you have a midterm to take the next morning, that arrive some of the “best” and most defining moments this campus can offer. It’s the mistakes, the hardships, and the punches you
take, that teach you what it means to punch back. You’ll put down and realize you actually wrote something. Said something. Became something.
So go out there and damn Princeton to hell.
It’ll be worth your while.
Sincerely,
CJS ’15
Chairman