We are all here because we are good at something. For a lot of people at this school, they are here because they are really good at something.

So what happens when you have a pile of high-achieving people crammed into the same space, eating the same food, pounding the same coffee, all trying to get something out of these short four years we have here? Anxiety. An absolutely massive amount of pure, uncut anxiety.

I take one step into Commons at noon and suddenly I’m reexamining every decision I’ve ever made to bring me to the point of standing in a 30 person line for the chance to choose from three different squash dishes.

There’s a reason the counseling center is always booked. There’s a reason we drink so much on the weekends, or go to the gym, or procrastinate, or smoke cigarettes, or write poetry. They are all outlets, valves through which we can offload some of that vasoconstricting, leg-shaking, eye-twitching anxiety that comes from being a small fish in a pond that is crammed with other small fish who are paying a lot of money to do better than you.

But maybe I’m projecting. Maybe that’s just me and everyone else is doing completely fine. But I doubt it, and frankly I have no idea how to change it. I’m just hoping to ride the undulating wave of stress and late nights to retirement.

Best,

Peter Case ’21

Editorial Editor