From One Home to Another

An absolutely amazing last day in Princeton. Actually ended up staying over at Forbes – helped Matt pack until about 4-5am, realized I left my prox back in Wilson, and didn’t want to walk back in the rain and risk my roommates not being awake. Different experience waking up not in my bed haha. Ran another box to store with OA (thanks Kathryn!) and did some last minute cleaning/packing. 

Got lunch at Shanghai Park with Matt’s family, a few of his family friends, Frank and Lawrence. I didn’t realize how much I missed Matt’s family, which might seem like a weird thing to say, but they’re such wonderful people. =] Matt got to practice his Orange Key skills giving a mini-tour of campus, which was a pretty nice way to spend my last day there. 

Ended up being a bit late to the airport so goodbyes were a little rushed and rather sad. Also managed to lose my California State ID somewhere in Newark – hopefully someone found it and will mail it to me? Could have been worse though – IDs are easily replaceable. Thanks a ton to Matt’s family again for giving me a ride to the airport. =] Lugging around my bags on public transit would have been a bit of a pain. The transfer went well too – made it just in time.

Oh home. Home is where the heart is right? I definitely have a home on both coasts… It was so amazingly hard to hold back the tears saying goodbye to everyone. I really can’t say enough how amazing of an experience Princeton has been. I was telling the lady sitting next to me about college and I honestly had tears welling up in my eyes. 

And speaking of that, I spent the first few hours of my first flight choking back tears and not succeeding. I actually ended up crying so much between thinking about Princeton and the people there, and reading “The Fault in Our Stars” that a girl sitting in my row gave me a tissue. Honestly, I just… My heart’s a little broken having to leave everyone.

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There really isn’t enough that I can say about Princeton, and almost everything I can would be cliché. I suppose I’ll try for a short summary though. 

I could talk for days about my year and still have more to say. I’ve found so many things to do at Princeton, in terms of places to go to hang out, activities to be involved in, events to go to… I’ve found my friends and my life companions. I’ve found joy and happiness and peace. I’ve found God, or rather He found me. I’ve found myself. I’ve learned so much about myself and I’m working to be a better person, and everything that has happened to me this year has helped me do so. 

Classes were hard; they were stressful and made me feel incredibly overwhelmed at times. But they were also enlightening and fun to an extent. I learned so much, more than I ever did, and I was challenged in all areas of study. And though my grades are nowhere near as good as they were in high school, and my GPA doesn’t stand a chance against my friends’, I wouldn’t give up the academic and intellectual stimulation that I get at Princeton. 

And it’s not just classes – the people there are all so incredibly passionate and nerdy. I make so many geeky jokes and so does everyone else. We bond over science puns and wordplay, we play math and pattern-finding games… It’s so comfortable. 

The people. Oh where do I even start. I just can’t. Not here. Each person deserves their own message, and hopefully I’ll get to those in a reasonable fashion. And even people I don’t hang out with – everyone is so willing to help: the students, faculty, staff… People are incredibly kind, and I couldn’t ask for a better community. 

Princeton. The Orange Bubble. It’s no less home than San Ramon.