Student Blog: Surviving Freshman Fall in Urbana-Champaign

Last year, when I was going through the college application process, my mom told me that I shouldn’t attend Northwestern University even though I’d been going there for music lessons since I was five and it was only a 30-minute drive from our Chicago home. When I asked her why, she told me that their quarter system wouldn’t be conducive to the way I am, compared to most other colleges’ semester systems. I still didn’t really get what she meant by this, so when I asked her what she meant, she told me that I always need time to “warm up” and the quarter system is so fast that I wouldn’t be able to. 

Now that I’m nine weeks into my first semester at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, I definitely understand what she meant. We are over halfway into the semester and I feel like I’m just now starting to really get used to the college lifestyle. Although I miss having my own bedroom and bathroom and midterm season never really ends here, I feel like I’m finally in a good rhythm. I can navigate around campus pretty well, I’m managing my courseload, and I’m keeping myself alive, so I think college has been a success so far. 

As a freshman planning on majoring in accounting and data science, I’ve been lucky that Illinois’ business school took all of my AP credits, so I only have a few more general education requirements that I need to fulfill. This semester, I’m taking Microeconomics, Business 101, Introduction to Innovation, Intro to Data Science, Pop Culture in Contemporary East Asia, and Companion Animals in Society. I admit I’m just taking the animal class because it fulfills a requirement and an upperclassman told me it was an easy A, but so far my classes aren’t too demanding. Even combined with summer internship applications and karate club meetings, I find that I still have enough time to complete all my homework while also making time for Stan Twitter and binging House, M.D.

Even though I’m only a 2.5 hour drive from home and I’ve already gone back once, the transition has definitely been weird. Every so often, the realization will hit me that I don’t actually live at home anymore (and I never truly will again) and my thoughts get all nostalgic. As someone who doesn’t really like change, I honestly wasn’t looking forward to moving away to college. This time last year I was so sure that I wanted to attend a school on the East Coast, both because I liked the vibes and because I wanted easy access to New York City to be able to see shows whenever I wanted (my mom and I are already planning a trip for January to see Gypsy and Sunset Boulevard, although I’m campaigning hard to see Moulin Rouge, Little Shop of Horrors (for the third time, but I really want to see Nicholas Christopher and Sherie Rene Scott, sue me), and Maybe Happy Ending too). However, after an extremely unpredictable and emotional admissions cycle, I’m glad to be at UIUC. I came here with a bunch of people from my high school, including some of my closest friends. I don’t know how I would have survived the first few weeks without them; thinking about going to a university several states away without knowing anyone there makes me anxious.

For any other freshmen: you’re doing great! I honestly think that half the battle is learning how to keep yourself alive and healthy; feeding yourself, cleaning your space, and self-motivating. My Dad always tells me, “Remember, millions of dumber people have gotten through college, so you can too,” and honestly that’s been getting me through this semester alongside the Robert Frost quote “The only way out is through.” Also, there are so many songs about growing up and experiencing change like this; here are some of my recommendations: “Never Grow Up” by Taylor Swift, “Growing Up” by Jason Schmidt (who you may know as Sodapop in The Outsiders), and “The Older You Get” by Daniel Seavey.  

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