Princeton Pals: Braving Virtual College, Together
by Grady Trexler
At Princeton, the fall 2020 semester was uniquely difficult – students took classes virtually, and most of them lived off-campus, fragmenting the university’s sense of community.
Grace Morris ‘24 and Yuki Chevray ’24 also experienced the challenge of having to adapt as first-years without living in dorms, eating in dining halls, or attending a single in-person lecture.
Along with four others, they lived in a house in North Brunswick, New Jersey for the fall.
“Very early on, I think it was relatively evident Yuki and I were the closest out of everyone else,” said Morris.
In the beginning, Chevray was shy, but the two got to know each other one night early in the semester, when Chevray and Morris shared life stories on a walk to a middle school nearby the house in which they lived.
“We walked circles around it for like three hours,” said Chevray.
“After that,” said Morris, “we were attached.”
As the fall semester progressed, Morris and Chevray’s relationship deepened. They say that they and their other roommates lived pretty insular lives, rarely interacting with others from outside of the household, and even then, they felt closest with one another.
“I would always sit shotgun,” says Morris, “and I would play all the music Yuki liked. When I played a song that she liked that she didn't tell me to play, she'd be happy, and that made me happy.”
Both agree that nothing much has changed – the two are living together this semester, after living in separate rooms in Feinberg Hall in the spring of 2021. Even then, being only two floors apart, the two spent a lot of time together and often wound up sleeping in the other’s room.
“The staircase was kind of irrelevant,” said Chevray.
The two talked every day over the summer, and have continued to enjoy seeing each other every day, living in a quad with two others in Walker Hall. They expect to continue to be friends for as long as they can see into the future.
"She's going to be the maid of honor at my wedding," said Morris.