Spring Break!

Spring Break’s here!

You know how it feels when there are a lot of things going on, you’re tearing your hair out, running from place to place, having to manage a zillion things in your mind, being tense about a billion other things and then suddenly, you hit the pause button? That feeling is such a void - ish feeling. It’s similar to, say, a free - fall - > you’re falling wildly, arms flailing, scared out of your mind or maybe enjoying yourself a bit, and then suddenly, time just freezes. As if that universal remote Adam Sandler has in Click really existed and some crazy guy pressed the pause button.

Spring Break at Princeton is SO much like that.

Princeton has an amazingly grand daily scheme of events and classes. Princeton’s infrastructure is mind - boggling. It blows my mind when I think about the logistics of it all - on any given weekday when classes are being held, so many lectures, precepts, labs, sessions and appointments are happening simultaneously. How that system runs, and so efficiently at that, is really amazing. Every student is managing his or her own set of classes, going about his own routine scheduled for that day. And all the different components of this brilliant system fit together seamlessly, or at least seem to. Just like clockwork.

So when this system comes to a halt, albeit a temporary halt, you’re left confused. And dazed. That’s quite how I feel right now. The system that was running at full steam till yesterday (my last class before break was yesterday) just paused itself - paused itself so you could take a break. For nine days, it’s not going to dictate or surround your life. You have those nine days to do whatever you want to do.

I may seem to be going on about this, but that’s how it is - I am having some difficult wrapping my mind around this concept.

A list of stuff I have to do over Spring Break à upload long - due pictures, write a few articles, update my blog, sleep a LOT so I can make up the sleep deficit I have accumulated, play table tennis and tennis as frequently as can be managed, organize my room better, organize my weekly schedule better, watch some movies that I wanted to earlier but couldn’t, hang out with friends who are still on campus, possibly read a couple of books, and if time still remains, study a bit and catch up on those classes where I need to catch up.

Spring break is officially here, in another 45 minutes. But for some reason, I don’t feel that excited. Maybe it’s because I just finished watching “Dead Poets’ Society”, a particularly intense movie that has the potential to partially depress you and put you in a contemplative mood. Or maybe it’s because when I went to Dillon for playing table tennis (and I had not played for some time and was really looking forward to it), the table tennis club actually wasn’t playing then -- the room was closed and the tables weren’t even set up, even though they had mentioned in an earlier email that they would be holding practice tonight. Or maybe it’s because I’m not going home / sunny California / Vegas / Venice / Italy / Germany / Sydney / Bali / Hawaii (the list is totally random -- these locations really don’t have a link between them, nor do I have friends that are going to each of these places :P). Or because I have to take ALL my meals this coming week at Forbes (Yes, ALL. I totally don’t get why they did this. Maybe they want to make some of the students on campus aware that the place exists.) -- now that means I will be crossing into a different zip code thrice a day, something that I don’t get to do that often here. Or because there’s going to be no late meal at Frist in the coming week. Ah. BINGO. I guess it’s the last reason I mentioned. I remember pondering over the significance of this fact and the dire implications it was going to have for all of us, or at least for me, as I was consuming my quesadilla at late lunch today -- my final quesadilla for nine days. That’s 9 * 24 hours. That’s a long time.

Having said that, I plan to ring in the Spring Break in style, or at least as much style I can manage after having watched that terribly heavy movie. I totally did not want this piece to take the tone it did, but I couldn’t help it. [Mental note - write a more positive entry about Spring break, sometime soon.]

And guess what? It’s Charter Friday. (: