Friday, November 8, 2019
My Favorite Place :)
The University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign is my favorite place around here, it may not be the most concise answer but it’s my favorite part. I have lived here my whole life so I can’t really even imagine what it would be like to not have a university nearby, especially in the Midwest. There are a bunch of much smaller rural towns only 20-30 minutes away from here and if we didn’t have the University of Illinois we would probably be very similar to them. Most of the more urban things we have are due to the University and its students creating a business. Also, I would not want to live in a small rural town for many reasons so having the University makes it feel like a bigger city, especially due to the size of the U of I.
I live here because my parents work at University so it’s always been a big thing for me. Since I was little I would come to my parents’ office and walk around the quad. On top of that I go to Uni high where every week I'm walking down the engineering quad and Green St. This place is really like my second home, I know my favorite places to study, where to go for food, and where to go when I just want a break.
It is also nice having sports teams.
I play soccer and I have for a long time, I love playing it and I think a lot of that is due to the women’s soccer team at the U of I. From a young age up until recent years, I went to every single soccer camp the U of I offered. Because of my being able to go to the camps I have met so many of the players and actually gotten to know the head coach. Especially when I was young, seeing these female D1 college soccer players felt like I was hanging out with celebrities. Whenever a player would visit some of my club team practices to help coach we would all go crazy asking for autographs. The closest pro women’s soccer team we have is the red stars in Chicago, so being able to closely watch and interact with some really high-level players helped me see that I could play soccer.
As I am going through the college process it has become more clear that U of I is one of my top schools, I get a discount because my parents work here and it's really good for the majors I want. I used to dread the possibility of staying here near my family for another four years, I would literally count down the months until I would be leaving. However, recently I have become a lot more at ease with staying here if I can. I have talked to close friends who go here and I have realized that the campus kind of makes me happy. It wasn't until last summer where I worked all day in North Champaign so I pretty much never came to campus, this was in stark contrast to my past summers where I would do plenty of camps on campus. When I came onto campus after not being here for a while I felt an unexpected feeling of joy. So although I have had my ups and downs this place has played an integral part of my life and overall it has been pretty good.
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This is such a cool take on the University! I can relate to what you said about wanting to leave and counting down and then realizing you have what you want right in front of you. I think that's cool your favorite place is an entire town also.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought about leaving here when I go off to college and I think it's great you saw the opportunities you had here and made me realize that there is a lot to the U of I.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you enjoy being on campus so much, that is an amazing thing. If you end up staying here for college you need to visit often! I have also thought a lot about where I want to go to college, and am slowly becoming more open to the idea of staying here. I think it may be one of those things that you don't fully appreciate until you lose it, and I think that if the U of I campus feels like your second home that is amazing! I hope you enjoy your time here.
ReplyDeleteI've never really thought about what Champaign-Urbana would be like without the University amongst it. During the college process, I was also heavily leaning toward getting out of here and leaving my parents as fast as possible. As I started thinking more rationally though, I realized that since I wanted to major in engineering, the U of I was a top tier school in the country. Not only this, but while having independence and experiencing new things is great, I think I undervalued how much my parents have helped me all my life and what life would be life without them. For grad school, I'll definitely give it another though whether I expand my choices, but I'm content staying at UIUC for undergrad.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought about it at all until recently, but UofI actually has a really nice campus. The architecture of most of the buildings is aesthetically pleasing and I like the energy, especially because we're surrounded by corn and small towns. I think that UofI would be the perfect school if it were a little farther from my parents and if it weren't subject to Midwestern summers and winters.
ReplyDeleteHaving a university campus near us is such a huge plus, considering the fact that if we didn't there would no be no incentive to travel to Champaign-Urbana. I go to Grainger to study, the basement of DCL to chill, and I even got an OK paying job at the university. This is all thanks to the university.
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