Lightweight Eats

After racing concluded on Saturday, I headed over to "the best old place of all", Princeton's campus. This is one of the best times of year in Princeton. The daffodils and tulips are all in bloom, the pollen levels are still low to moderate, and the temperature is comfortable. Even better, the seniors have mostly turned in their theses and are enjoying the post-thesis life.

It's a very different experience being back on campus again. It turns out hindsight is not 20/20.

When I left campus, I was so glad to be gone. As the months have passed, though, I have become a bit nostalgic. Recently, I even managed to convince myself that Princeton was great and I just hadn't taken advantage of it properly.

Actually being here has reminded me why I didn't like it.

From the small town feel to the stressful student life, Princeton was not all that I had hoped college to be. I certainly learned a lot on campus—how to calculate the moment on a concrete beam, the chemical composition of chocolate and the architectural style of Mies van der Rohe, for example. Now, I realize that none of that stuff really matters.

Princeton didn't teach me the things I needed to know: how to have fun, what I'm passionate about, and how to say no. In the two years since I've graduated, I have started to learn those things. Returning to campus, I can see that.

I have learned to socialize and drink in moderation. I have learned that I love moving and being outdoors more than thinking or being indoors. I have learned that I can't do everything and that I shouldn't do everything—even if my peers are trying. I have learned to compete with my yesterday rather than compete with your today.

Perhaps I just wasn't ready to learn these lessons in college. And I do have regrets: I wish I had gotten more involved in the garden, attended some of the lectures, taken my classwork less seriously and had the independence to move off campus.

In my last few hours on campus, I am going to savor the reminder that I love life after college. I am living my dream and every day I make my dream a little bit bigger, bolder and better.