Society of Lies

by Lauren Ling Brown

Greystone Society is so covert that most people at Princeton don’t know they exist. But I’ve been fascinated by them for years.

I imagine my mother saying from wherever she is now to take every strange adventure life presents to experience the world, not shy away from it.

When you find someone who sees you in a way no one else does, who understands you and makes you feel like you can’t be whole without them, it wraps you in a vise and makes you forget how to live life without them.

home became the friends that kept showing up, the spaces that welcomed me.

It’s strange how after you lose someone, they start to fade piece by piece, until all that’s left are memories that could slip through your fingers like water.

“The world does not make sense. Humans are not rational decision makers—we are driven by our wants, our needs, our fears.”

I’d get nervous when Naomi would take the subway at night, kiss too many boys, spend money like the world was ending. I wished I could make decisions for her, so that I wouldn’t have to watch her suffer the consequences of her mistakes. But now I realize that making mistakes is a necessary part of growing up. Instead of complaining, I should have told her how I admired her spontaneity, how little she cared what others thought.

I think again of how some people are so eager to have the perfect relationship, the perfect life, that they’re willing to overlook the obvious flaws, the red flags right in front of them.

How often, in the world, is silence what allows horrible people to get away with their crimes?