As college tour season starts back up and the weather warms in Evanston, our tour guides pitch Northwestern to groups of prospective students and their families. It brings me back to when I was a high school senior worrying about whether or not I’d get into NU, visiting campus and asking the tour guide probing questions. I knew I wanted to try all of the things NU offered because otherwise I’d feel I didn’t take advantage of my $68,000 tuition.

Now when I’m in Norris University Center, I often overhear tour guides describing all the incredible opportunities our school provides us with: renting iPads at Main Library, going to sporting events for free, visiting Chicago, gaining free entry to museums as well as other discounts, earning financial aid for laptops or professional attire, celebrating Dillo Day and enjoying our own private beach on campus.

Whenever I speak to alumni, I always ask them what they regret about their college experience. The most popular answers are always “not studying abroad” and “not taking advantage of NU’s diversity enough.” It is inevitable to have regrets in life. I already have a few regrets from my time at NU: missing President Obama’s speech, not joining enough clubs during my freshman year and not going to the Michigan basketball game last year.

But above all, I have regretted not meeting enough people who are different from me. And because I don’t want to miss out on any more future opportunities to shape the type of person I want to be, I want to build bridges with people from completely separate backgrounds and interests.

This Saturday, I went to South East Asian Night sponsored by Thai Club, Singapore Society, Vietnamese Students Association and Kaibigan. I went with a Southeast Asian friend and got to learn about the culture of every Southeast Asian nation represented. It was a lot of fun to try completely different foods and meet a bunch of new people. Last year, one of my favorite events I went to was Holi held by South Asian Student Alliance, where I wasn’t necessarily part of the cultural tradition, but I definitely felt like I experienced something that mattered to those students. I felt like I was briefly included in that community, and that was exciting.

College is the best opportunity to meet different people because everyone here is unique and has something distinct to offer. Many of the alumni I’ve met have told me it gets harder to get to know people from different backgrounds outside of the people you work with. Just being able to meet people coming from completely different backgrounds — people I will likely not run into again — was really appealing to me. This opportunity is especially available while in college.

Northwestern is a place where there are many events coming up, and I’d highly recommend checking out what different clubs on campus are doing. Go out and take advantage of everything you hear tour guides talk about. You’re only a Wildcat for only so long.

Yousuf Kadir is a Weinberg sophomore. He can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.