Well, Tigers, we are officially in month 6 of the 2016-17 academic year at Princeton. I challenge you to consider your life before the Orange Bubble. How much has changed? How much has remained the same? Whether you're a fresh-faced first-year or a too-cool-for-school senior, I'm sure you can say you've undergone sometype of change (for better or for worse) throughout your time here. The relationships we forge and the choices we make affect us in ways we perhaps may not yet perceive. It may not phase us until one day it hits us when we least expect it...
And just like that – you wake up and the world has changed.
Old friends, old times, old laughs are gone because the world has changed.
Life is strange, but not too strange – you are hurtling towards your cosmic fate
only to find that you’re just a little strange, but not insane.
Your new life is beginning, revolving on axes of hope and trust and love and fate
only to make you see that you’re just a little strange, but not insane.
Through the broken parapet comes rushing forth new trials and tribulations,
but you dutifully accept because you know how much the world has changed.
The memories do not quite fade or recede, they surge forth over the sands of the new world
only to wet your feet and call you back.
Between the ocean and the broken parapet, you find yourself paralyzed, frozen in fear
for both directions beckon you here and there.
You are locked in a stalemate, the memories are strong, but this world is promising.
But then you remember – you’re just a bit strange, and very insane.
Beyond the parapet is indeed a promising world, the turrets and treasures are surely abounding,
but nothing is as astounding and resounding as the promise of growth unending.
And just like that – your world has changed; the old lies there at the ocean’s feet begging
and begging for your return. But then you come to a morbid realization –
You have changed. Oh, yes, you have changed. The waters still call you, but this world has
reformed you. You’re a little bit strange…and forever insane.
So reflect on your pre-Princeton life. Look at yourself now. Notice any differences - beyond the obvious? If your past self saw you now, if pre-Princeton you glimpsed into your mind, would he or she believe you to be strange, and perhaps a bit insane?
