During move-in week ’19, we asked UI faculty members to tell us a story about their own experience of leaving home for the first time. Here’s two-degree UI grad Andy Suarez, who followed up his bachelor’s (1991) and master’s (1994) with a job at Illinois, where he’s been since 2003.
“I left home in a Chicago suburb to attend the University of Illinois as a freshman in 1987. My best friend and I drove down together in his Mazda. We were so excited to start college and I remember that drive as if it was yesterday.
“I moved into ISR and he moved into FAR, and for the first few weeks it felt like we lived miles apart. I was nervous about meeting new people, making new friends, doing well in classes and just about everything else.
“I wish I could do it all again.”
