I was at the Broadway musical Spring Awakening in New York in Fall 2007 when I got a text message: “I’m going to Northwestern!!” It was from my little sister.
Kimmy, or Kim as she introduces herself now (I still can’t get used to it), is a freshman here. She lives in the same dorm and joined the same sorority. Still, I’ve often wondered how we could end up happy at the same place. I recently described her as “a nicer, more generous, more studious, more responsible and all-around better version of me.”
I picked NU for Medill; Kimmy picked it for its medium-size student body and big city-college town balance. She applied early and was accepted in December of her senior year; I applied to 14 schools and didn’t decide until May. Upon acceptance she cried in relief; I ran excited circles around my house.
“I didn’t come here because you came here,” Kimmy insists, but I like to think I had something to do with it – after all, she first visited campus to see me. “I specifically remember looking at the lakefill and thinking wow, I could sit here and live here and be here,” she said.
I’ve helped show her the way, ordering her textbooks, helping her navigate CAESAR and O’Hare, and convincing her to take Social Psych with me during the fall, which she loved. But she teaches me, too, taking me to a play downtown, formatting my research paper’s bibliography and sharing wisdom from Plant-People Interactions (how to make soy sauce, don’t eat raw cashews, which type of mushrooms make you see dragons and castles).
She has exceeded me academically, landing on the Dean’s List each quarter.
She doesn’t like all my recommendations, and I’ve wondered if I’ve led her astray. (I made Kimmy join my high school paper. She promptly quit.) She hates the Deuce, for example, and didn’t love Ski Trip, which I’ll never understand. But Northwestern seems to allow a little wiggle room. She had doubts at first, but “it’s gotten more right.”
I came to campus as a journalism major; Kimmy arrived in Weinberg undecided. I’ve worked for The Daily since freshman year; Kimmy rarely reads a newspaper, but spends her time racing on Lake Michigan with the sailing team.
“We’ve found different little niches,” she said.
(She’s taken part in NU traditions I never have, like painting the Rock. I ran into her as she guarded it on my way to meet with a dean, who was amused by the coincidence.)
In other ways we’re more similar – people confuse us for each other now, which never used to happen. My friends even nicknamed her “Little Vietch.”
In some ways I’m jealous – to have had to learn things myself, fly alone, come in not knowing anyone. But there are perks to having her here, like lunch on her meal plan and Social Psych notes. Every Sunday night we order Chinese food and watch TV.
But then again, my extra three years at Northwestern sometimes amount to nothing. When we got final grades back in Social Psych, I only beat her by half a point.
Medill senior Jen Wieczner can be reached at [email protected]
