Remember school supply shopping? At the risk of sounding even nerdier than usual, I’ll admit that one of the highlights of my summers during elementary school was always the week before school began. My mom and I would take a school supply list and head over to Target.

Running through the aisles of the back-to-school section, I felt rejuvenated (perhaps a little premature for a girl of 10 years). The clean white paper, the glittery mechanical pencils, the Lisa Frank unicorn eraser: they had an irresistible power.

The school year to come was just like the first page of my new hot pink Five Star notebook — blank and open to endless possibilities.

Ten years later, my course subjects have changed from cursive to chemistry and recess is nonexistent.

At a university like Northwestern, it’s easy to run through our days in a perpetually hyperventilating state of stress. Not only do we rarely stop to smell the proverbial (or literal) roses here, but also, we often find ourselves thinking, “what’s next?” as opposed to “what’s now?”

That, to me, is a travesty.

The purpose of my column this quarter is to highlight five things that I’m grateful for each week.

Hopefully through this exercise, you and I will realize that not only do we have great things ahead of us, but what we have right now is pretty spectacular too.

As we get settled back in Heavenston, preparing for a new year of possibilities, here’s this week’s back-to-school edition of what I’m grateful for:

1. Wildcat Welcome

Every year, freshmen flood into NU’s campus a week early; some self-consciously carrying boxes and others sauntering into Bobb Residence Hall. Either way, NU’s orientation program does a phenomenal job of ushering them in. Hundreds of students undergo hours of training (not to mention abide by a strict no alcohol policy) so that they can help the new students get acclimated

to campus during what can be a very overwhelming time. The result? A week of all fun and no classes, with a plethora of opportunities to meet new people, get involved and eat free food. It’s a week that many NU students look back on as one of their favorite college experiences, and one of the times that I’m most thankful for.

2. The Activities Fair

Yesterday, tables lined Norris University Center and hundreds of active students vied for the attention of freshmen. Some upperclassmen may have checked out lesser known groups like Baha’i Club, while others decided to make this the year to join one of the classic student groups like Associated Student Government. Either way, there was free candy.

3. Non-stop reunions

“I’m back, let’s catch up,” is probably one of many in the swarms of texts you’re in the process of sending and receiving if you’re a returning student. While the trips between North and South campus and the crowds in line at Norbucks can be trying, it’s pretty amazing to have people to return to.

4. The First Keg Monday.

Enough said.

5. Thinking

Much of my time this summer has been spent in front the television, absorbing hours and hours of mindless TV into a lifeless brain whose activity level would have doctors reaching for shock plates. While I thoroughly enjoyed this break from academia, I must admit that I’m ready to put my mind to work. As I pull out a fresh Five Star and pen and feel the old cogs sputtering into action, I am more than a little excited about the prospect of how much I will think and learn in the year to come.

Maeve Wall is a Weinberg junior.

She can be reached at [email protected].