Spring Semester of Junior Year

After ten long and difficult months away from the Orange Bubble, I was so fortunate to be able to return to campus for the spring semester of my junior year. It certainly was an unprecedented semester with plenty of challenges, but amidst the difficulties of an in-person yet socially-distanced experience, I’m grateful for the moments of hope, laughter, and joy that made me fall in love with Princeton all over again.

At first, I was not sure if I should return to campus because I was understandably quite worried about catching COVID-19. Luckily, Princeton had extremely stringent public health guidelines that made me feel comfortable living on campus. We began our semester with a ten-day quarantine where we were barely able to leave our dorm rooms. While this forced solitude was difficult, it basically eliminated any traces of the virus from the campus community at the start. During the semester, all students living on-campus and off-campus in the local area were tested twice a week for the virus through a saliva test. We had to wear a mask and social distance at all times, and classes remained mostly online. We could not have more than two other students in our dorm room or gather in large groups outside. The eating clubs were closed for food and social events, the dining halls had a much smaller range of food options, student activities still had to operate virtually, and the libraries required reservations. While all of these guidelines made it harder to learn and to socialize, I am so grateful they were in place, as we had very few COVID-19 cases the whole semester. Once I got vaccinated at CVS in March and my friends got vaccinated mostly in April, I felt like I could relax a little, finally. The rapid development and distribution of vaccines is truly a miracle.

It was another semester of Zoom classes, but I thought my professors did a good job using the online platform for the most part. My classes were Law, Institutions, and Public Policy; Global Feminisms: Feminist Movements in the Middle East and Beyond; Microeconomics for Public Policy; and Women, Gender, and Public Policy. As you can see, there were lots of required classes for my public policy major. I had never really engaged with law before, so that class gave me a bit of a hard time. However, I know it’s important to think critically about the institutional structures of our legal system with their shortcomings and possibilities for reform. The Global Feminism class was a seminar that showed me the diversity in the movement for women’s rights around the world. I feel like so much of my academic focus has been within the confines of the United States borders, so it was great to expand my learning to an international context. I’m not a huge fan of economics, but I liked this year’s class much more than the introductory level class I did in my sophomore spring. I appreciated how this economics class was more applied in nature as we used what we learned to understand modern policy issues like the impact of the child tax credit and the effect of school closures due to COVID. My last class was a required class for my second junior paper, major independent research projects all juniors at Princeton are required to undertake. I used qualitative interviews with female classmates at Princeton to write about how Donald Trump inspired them to become more politically involved during the 2020 election because he showed them the profound impact politics has on their personal lives.

My academic experience was definitely a challenge this past semester, and so was my social experience. In normal semesters, there is always so much activity around campus, and I’m rarely alone. I was always busy on the weekends seeing my friends shine in theater shows, dance performances, and acapella arch sings or hanging out in the eating clubs. All of that was gone this semester. I was in my room much more than ever before, and not by choice. I still managed to see friends regularly, but we had to spend time together individually or in very small groups. Mental health was at an all time low on-campus between this forced solitude of sorts, a lack of understanding from professors, and the removal of spring break due to concerns about students traveling.

I don’t want it to seem that the semester was all negative, however. There were definitely more good parts than bad parts. I found myself making new friends and strengthening existing friendships even more as we once again got to make in-person memories. I helped keep the town of Princeton’s restaurants in business as I got a lot of takeout to make up for the poorer quality dining hall food. I did my best to plan or attend outdoors socially-distanced group hangouts, like a picnic dinner with my friend group in front of the majestic Nassau Hall on the last day of class, a karaoke night on Poe Field (to this day, we still don’t know if the person who yelled at us at 1 am was telling us to be quiet or just singing along), and a listening party with my friends from The Daily Princetonian for the release of Taylor Swift’s re-recorded version of her classic album Fearless. Speaking of the ‘Prince’, I’m so happy to be an Associate News Editor for the second year in a row. I love writing and editing articles as part of this amazing group of passionate, dedicated, and compassionate staff (shoutout to my best friend, who’s the Editor-in-Chief). Another great part of the semester was that moments of spontaneous interactions with friends were possible once again, instead of having to put so much effort into planning meet-ups. Running into a friend by chance can change the whole course of a day, as I found out frequently. I got to return to my usual favorite places on campus, like the comfiest chair ever in Chancellor Green, the beautiful study spaces in Firestone Library, and the Hogwarts-like Rocky/Mathey College dining hall. I also found some new places to spend time in, like the classroom above the First College dining hall with a door code it seemed like only my friend group knew, so we ended up monopolizing it for study sessions every night, or the cafe in our student center where I could buy a croissant while doing some work (or rather, trying to do work but usually ending up having deep conversations instead). I enjoyed Center for Jewish Life activities as always, including Shabbat, which I went to almost every week for a good start to the weekend. I'm also so proud of the virtual event I planned and moderated for Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month featuring a talk with Judy Heumann, one of the most important disability rights activists of all time. Some of my favorite memories from the past semester came when I finished my finals early and had three glorious days of total freedom. The weather was absolutely beautiful, so I spent those days outside the whole time making some last memories with my friends for the year. I prioritized seeing my senior friends, who I will miss dearly next year. Those days of pure joy reminded me of the beauty of Princeton and reinforced how lucky I am to have made such amazing friends. Overall, the semester gave me what I really needed, which was the unparalleled access to academic resources in our libraries, the independence I desperately craved (I love you, Mom, Dad, and Colin, but I’ve grown to appreciate having my own space), and the feeling of community that I feel whenever I roll onto campus and can’t go anywhere without seeing someone I know. I’m so grateful I was able to make the most of the semester while staying safe and healthy.

Now that the semester has been done for over a month, I’ve been having a great summer. I was able to celebrate my 21st birthday in Washington D.C. this past weekend with two of my absolute best Princeton friends. The drive-by parade my parents organized for my birthday last year with my closest friends from home was so heartfelt and meaningful, but I’m glad I could celebrate my birthday properly in-person this year. I had an amazing weekend filled with love from people like you, my family and friends who truly mean the world to me. I have an internship with Congressman Steny Hoyer through the American Association of People with Disabilities internship program. Look out for a recap of that amazing experience at the end of this summer!

I can’t believe I’m now a rising senior at Princeton; I really don’t know where the time went. Things were going so well for me in spring 2020 before it got rudely interrupted by COVID-19, and I feel the need to do my best to make up for all the time I lost. While senior year comes with the stress of the senior thesis, there is so much to look forward to, and hopefully public health conditions will allow for a year as close to normal as possible. I move back to Princeton two months from today, and I can’t wait to make it the best year yet! Thanks for reading this long-winded update, if you made it this far.