Gone Soon

“How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d.” — Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard

I can’t believe it’s already September, and that I’ve been out of college for three months. I don’t think I’ve completely internalized that I won’t be going back to school this time around. But the papers have been signed, and the upcoming year in London is becoming more of a reality than it ever has been.

Honestly, I’m not sure I’m ready for it all.

I have a little over two weeks left of my internship at Pentagram. I’m proud to say that over the last weeks I’ve grown in ability and confidence. While it will be a while before the designs I’m helping create will be released, the banners outside the office have changed to reflect Madison Square Park’s new season. Though all I was asked to do was modify an existing design by a former intern, I think the colors look quite lovely against the Manhattan backdrop.

Mad. Sq. Pk. banner outside the Pentagram office

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Language of the ♥

One week away from graduation, and Princeton feels more empty than ever. Most of the rooms in my hall have been abruptly evacuated of student presence, rendered uniformly barren by the post-exams mass move-out. This liminal limbo known as “dead week” is a bit too much for me to take. I’ve already had to say good-bye to many friends I am unlikely to see again in the foreseeable future, but it has yet to hit home that next Tuesday will mark the end of my life as a Princeton undergraduate.

I am finding it helpful to meditate on the future. Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave an impressive keynote speech at Carnegie Mellon’s commencement a few days ago, where he imparted these thoughts to the graduating class: “In a world where everything is kept and remembered forever — the world you are graduating into — you should live for the future and the things you really care about. Don’t live in the past. Live in the future…You’ll find today is the best chance you have to start being unreasonable, to demand excellence, to drive change, to make everything happen.”

We are often asked to imagine the world we want to live in — an idealist’s exercise that is as hopeful as it is naive. Our burden, however, is not merely to dream; it is to act. On Friday, I went to New York to see some old friends and had the opportunity to see the opening of Wendy Keys’ new biographical documentary on Milton Glaser, possibly the world’s best-known graphic designer. What struck me most about the trajectory of this incredible man is his uncompromising commitment to design that exposes and reinforces the connectivity of lived experiences: to him, design is what reminds people about their shared humanity, lest they destroy each other in selfish conquest.

Milton Glaser, graphic design legend

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