Change

You take your first steps on campus then you feel it.  It all rushes back to you like the first day of high school but ten times more intense.  You begin to feel like a small fish in a big pond.  All these emotions start running through your body.  Not knowing if you should feel nervous or excited you decide it is time to get to class.  You don’t know anyone, and worst of all you don’t know how to get to class.  Trying not to look like a “newcomer” you hide your map and schedule and decide to find your way around campus by yourself.  As you are walking around, you keep smiling at people; trying to get a few smiles back or hoping to even get a conversation out of someone.  After a while, you realize that your stubbornness to find your way to class by yourself makes you late so you choose to skip class instead of walking in late.  Not having anything to do for an hour, you decide to explore what the University of Illinois has to offer you. 

You start out at the well know “Quad” that everyone talks a big deal about.  There are a lot of people, but not as many as there are during passing period.  Everyone looks different.  Looking around, you can’t help but see; Africans, Hispanics, Indians, Arabic, and Whites.  You start to realize the how diverse the University is.  Everyone is separated into their own little “cliques” already.  As you are walking through the quad you hear 5 different languages which intrigue you.  “This is what people mean when they talk about UIC,” you think.  Turning towards Harrison, you see these three new, modern buildings, Douglas Hall, Grant Hall, and Lincoln Hall.  They are all connected to each other and all have the same uses.  They all serve as discussion rooms, meeting rooms, and computer labs.  Compared to the rest of the buildings around campus which have an old, dark feeling to them, you are shocked to see these new glass buildings.  Every room you walk past is filled with classes in session.  You can also see computer rooms and lounge areas with quite a lot of students in them.  Most of them are on their computers or listening to their iPods.  That’s when you get to the center of the three halls and find a nice sitting area.  It is very quiet compared to the quad.  Not a lot of people are there.  You take a seat by a girl who is smoking cigarette and on her phone.  Ease dropping, you hear her telling the person on the other end, “I’m actually happy to be back at UIC.”  10 minutes pass of you just enjoying this area, you realize that the little lounge area has mostly only been occupied by older students stopping for a smoke break and going on about their business.  This area is quiet and you kind of feel like you’re in the library.  You don’t know if it is because it’s the first day of school or because most students are in class, but you like it.  You feel comfortable here.  After a while you get up to continue exploring the campus.  That’s when you get to an extremely large, brick building.  “Art and Architecture Building,” is what the sign says.  That’s when you think to yourself, “It makes sense for it to be called the architecture building but art, really?”  The building has a unique shape to it but has no sense of artistic style unless you consider dark brown bricks artistic.  This is not the typical rectangular shape all of the other buildings though.  On the other hand, it's not new and modern the like the Grant, Lincoln, and Douglas buildings.

This is when you start to think about how full of history UIC is.  You can tell by just looking at most of the buildings, that they were built or remodeled in the early 1960’s, when Mayor Richard J. Daly gave UIC the ok to build a new campus between Halsted and Harrison.  All of the sudden a picture of your dad pops in your head.  You begin to remember when he was giving you a history lesson on the school when you were first moving in, like how the University finally got its name in 1982, when the medical school and the circle campus finally merged together.  

 Back to the AA building, it has lots of dimension to it. You don’t feel that this building is very comforting though.  It is not a place to come to when trying to relax.  The AA building is very dark and all the trees surrounding it make the area even darker.  Observing for a little longer, the crowd is very different.  Not a lot of people are stopping in this area but if they are you can tell they are upperclassmen.  You see a guy and girl.  The guy is skating around doing tricks as the girl takes pictures of him.  You realize that they are already working on school work, which reminds you that you need to get to your next class.  Giving up, you pull out your map and walk toward Lecture Center 4.  On your way there you smile to yourself and think, “I’m really going to like it here.”