MAYA ARONOFF: Hi, guys.
Thank you for that wonderful introduction.
As we know, some of us sell out to McKinsey,
I'm selling out back to Princeton's endowment --
go Tigers.
Now that that cheap-shot finance roast is out of the way,
I'll get started.
It feels like the last four years have
gone by in the blink of an eye.
And I think that's appropriate, because college is just kind
of those baby steps on the way to wherever
we're supposed to be heading.
So why did we start down this path?
For some of us, it may have been because Princeton is the number
one school in the nation.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
And we've certainly earned it.
Yale is out here taking bribes for fake athletes.
[LAUGHTER]
While we have alumni giving.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
But I've wanted to come here since I was a little girl,
because my parents met here the winter of their freshman year.
My dad worked in the dining hall.
He would give my mom extra French fries.
And then my mom had her roommate set them on a blind date
to go dancing.
They got married right after they graduated, as if we were
getting married this August.
And they're over there still happily married.
They're the most selfless, hard-working, kind,
passionate people in the whole world,
and I owe everything I have to them.
AUDIENCE: Love you Maya!
MAYA RITA ARONOFF: Aww.
[APPLAUSE]
So I saw Princeton as this magical place
where I could learn to be like them.
And after a lot of hard work, luck,
and let's be honest, legacy points, I did get in.
We all got in to our fairy-tale land,
where we'll learn to serve humanity and probably find
a husband.
Lean in, ladies -- we can have it all.
And so before I came here, I went
to one of those alumni events to get you ready.
And in Michigan, this was in a fancy country club
that seemed like the type of place that
hadn't allowed black people or Jews for a while,
and women only recently.
And I assume that was to get us ready for the legacy
of the university.
[OOHING]
Anyway, while I was there, one of the alumni told me that
Princeton would be the best four years of my life --
and I hoped not.
And that's not because I don't recognize how lucky I
am to go to Princeton.
I had a very happy experience with incredible professors,
inspiring friendships and countless, countless emails
from listservs I don't remember signing up for,
and couldn't figure out how to get off of.
I'm sorry, Jeff from "The Princeton Tory."
[LAUGHTER]
But like every other place, Princeton doesn't always
live up to your expectations.
For example, I learned that boys were just as disappointing
here as they were in high school,
but now with higher average SAT scores.
[LAUGHTER]
I learned that Princeton offers courses
in everything but common sense, which
I didn't get until junior fall.
I learned I would become addicted
to the feeling of turning in assignments exactly one
minute before the deadline, including
my thesis and this speech.
[LAUGHTER]
And I relearned a lesson I think a lot of us
have been learning our whole lives.
Which is that although it's important to respect
most differences of opinion, just because someone
has a different opinion doesn't make it inherently valid.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
These complex discoveries weren't limited to my own life.
One of my very first memories of Princeton
is meeting President Eisgruber.
It was a classic encounter.
He had the gray suit, the orange tie.
We were in his office yelling about Woodrow Wilson.
And --
[LAUGHTER]
This sit-in was organized by the Black Justice League.
And I was in awe as a little freshman thinking, wow,
these people, whether or not you agreed with everything
the organization wanted, they cared
enough about this community to try and make it better.
And from that protest, we got our African American studies
department.
We got a teach-in about Wilson's racist actions.
But at the time, not the distribution requirement
they'd asked for, and Wilson's name is still on my diploma.
I think the fervor around Wilson faded
because of how much this campus has seen in the last four
years.
We've been here from YikYak to Tiger Confessions.
And still we endure.
We've been here from honor code referendum to identical honor
code referendum.
[LAUGHTER]
And we've been here through harder times too,
from President Obama to President Trump,
through hurricanes and fires, and more vigils
than I can count.
We've been here through two lawsuits the university helped
file to protect DACA students and students affected
by the travel ban.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
And while I've been here, rates of interpersonal violence
on campus haven't gone down.
The orange bubble has tangoed with the nation --
two steps forward and one step back.
And I've often felt overwhelmed by thinking about how
to solve these problems.
How can we --
we, the same class that used Campbell trashcans
as a bathroom --
serve humanity?
[LAUGHTER]
But when I look out at all of you, I feel hopeful.
I know some of you, I don't know some of you.
Some of you I don't know, but am in love with because
of your promotional photos for DiSiac.
And I know that in this crowd, there
are good people, kind people, and brave people who
not only have the creativity to imagine a better world,
but the willpower to make that world happen.
So I hope that the past four years are not
the best of our lives.
I hope that the horizons we run towards
make this a distant memory.
In this crowd, we're going to have people on brochures --
the next Einstein, Michelle Obama,
somebody who finally addresses global warming --
please, one of you.
We're going to have people who are teachers, and neighbors,
and parents, and partners, and people
who hold quiet revolutions of everyday empathy.
Sometimes, it feels as though the arc of the universe
is getting lost on its way to justice.
But we have to keep trying.
It wasn't until 1947 that the first African-American
undergraduate student was allowed here.
50 years ago, the first woman.
Four years ago, the BJL asked the university
to include a culture and difference distribution
requirement.
And two months ago, the university finally said yes.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
And a week after they did, hundreds of students
gathered outside Nassau Hall to protest
the rates of interpersonal violence
on campus and offer reforms to bring them down.
This was started by amazing people
with more chutzpah than I have.
But I tried to help out.
I emailed President Eisgruber.
He left me on read.
[LAUGHTER]
Now we're meeting with a committee over the summer.
So far, we've had two meetings about how to have meetings.
And we can't even agree on that.
But if we keep pushing, and we keep talking to one another
about how to make the world a better
place, who knows what four years from now this campus
can look like?
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
Two steps forward and one step back
is still a step in the right direction.
So I hope when we leave FitzRandolph Gates,
although we'll be on different paths,
that we'll walk together in that right direction.
Thank you.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]