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Exclusives: Comparative Life June
5, 2002: Beyond
FitzRandolph By Kristen Albertsen '02 It's been a year of startling changes and new directions, positive and negative, personally and globally, in Princeton and beyond. The last year for us seniors, the first for President Tilghman, and through it all, the specter of September 11 and the shadows of the Twin Towers. September 11 is a date that will define the Class of 2002 as well as, in many respects, its members. A discrete red-white-and-blue ribbon graces the sleeve of our class beer jacket. The phrase "nine-eleven" was uttered during Opening Exercises and will be uttered at Commencement. The upcoming Reunions will be the first to which 13 sons and daughters of Princeton will never return. Few recollections of my senior year will be without a memory of September 11. Class lectures and personal discussions frequently centered on the event. Emails from our class president concluded with "God Bless America." American flags were the room decoration de rigueur. For breaks during the long nights of thesis-writing I turned to the New York Times on the Web, which inevitably had some article, usually front-page, concerning 9-11 and its aftermath. Most significantly, September 11 influenced our plans for the future, or at least gave us second thoughts. A friend of mine succinctly said, "September 11 made me want to either join the CIA or move to Lapland." He's doing neither, but some people could not suppress expressions of patriotism — and fear — so easily. Many seniors wrote on aspects of September 11 in their theses. The cadets in ROTC are facing vastly different challenges next year than they had anticipated. Many of us, myself included, decided to forego a real job and stay in (graduate) school, both because of the shaken economy and because the Ivory Tower is one that I believe will never fall. There is anxiety on the homefront as well. Mothers of friends who are moving to New York City next year grow increasingly anxious as warnings of future attacks become increasingly urgent and increasingly vague. My own mother expressed concern over my summer job in Los Angeles. After learning about possible attacks on landmarks, she counseled me, "Well, just make sure you don't hang around the big Hollywood sign." I thanked her for her parental wisdom and laughed it off, but am quietly comfortable going to Edinburgh next year, a safe and sleepy city. As the world has changed, so have I. I'm trying now to mix these
uncertain ingredients together. September 11 has come to represent
to me an echo from the larger world beyond FitzRandolph Gate, constantly
and quietly reverberating through my thoughts, decisions, and future.
A word of caution, that the grass out there isn't as green as the
vines of ivy on Nassau Hall. A reminder that world requires a lot
of work, and that it's my job, somehow, to work on it.
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