Well, Niles West. It’s what you’ve all been waiting for: Stop and Smell the Rozy is back for her comeback tour and you are all invited. You lucky ducks, you. I know what you are all thinking. It’s only been a semester. I know, I know; it’s too long to go without me. Don’t worry gang, I’ve come to remedy that. As an alumna of Niles West, I have been well prepared for my life at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

You probably want to know the general what happens in college things. Don’t worry; you are going to LOVE what I have to tell you. The first thing you notice is how everything changes once you move from high school to college. The first thing being lingo. Your teachers become professors (and most likely TAs), your tests become exams, your periods are just classes, but now you have lectures and discussions, your home is now your dorm, and the cafeteria is now the dining hall. Welcome to college.

College is the place where you get anything you want any way you want it without having a giant label, or piano, hanging over your head. There is a club for anything, and if there isn’t then you can make one. On quad day, where all of the clubs advertise themselves, I signed up for 12 clubs and activities. From the 12, I am only invested in two and a half. The half being Model UN, and I am trying it on for a size. The other two are The Daily Illini and my residence hall’s council of which I am the spirit chair. I throw that fairy dust on students that makes them love U of I even more.

Aside from clubs, I am immensely devoted to getting every single thing that I am paying for. I attend my classes (for the most part) and get a hearty education. For those of you who float on my boat, and know what career you want to have but have no idea what you want to major in, there are plenty of opportunities for you to find out what it is you really like. I’m sure you can all guess that I am pursuing my career as a journalist, but being a journalist I don’t necessarily have to major in journalism which opens up every major in the university.

As of now, I have thought of majoring in 30 or so different majors with a mix of double majoring and minoring. I haven’t declared anything yet because, well, changing my major 30 times might make me seem a little too fickle. I do know that there is plenty of time for me to make my final decision, although I think that I will be most likely majoring in Global Studies. You don’t need to sit down and make your decision right away, you could take a class just to kill a “gen ed” and realize that you are in the wrong major and your true passion lies in whatever that class is teaching you.

Restaurants and delivery services are all open until at least four in the morning. That is bliss. We also have Insomnia cookies, which are addicting, and it doesn’t open until late in the day and stays open all night. One thing that I dislike profusely when coming back home is how I can never have Jimmy John’s at two am. There is always something you could do in college no matter what. It doesn’t have to be a party or anything like that, but you can hang out in your friends’ dorm all night long on a Tuesday. You have all the freedom in the world.

I don’t think I should go into the logistics of what classes I have and what goes on in them because I feel like everyone already tells you these things, but if you really want to know you could e-mail me and I could respond to all of your questions. College is something everyone should look forward to for every reason that is important to them. If it is furthering your education, that’s definitely there; meeting new people, joining clubs and organizations, working, or being away from home you can find all of that there and more.

E-mail me at: [email protected]

Rozy’s Bio:

Graduated Niles West: 2011

College: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Major: Undeclared… but going into Global Studies

Favorite Part about Niles West: Niles West News