(-- The Beacon)
By
The sun has just set on The Bluff, and the sky that shows between the tall thick-trunked trees fades downward from inky black to rich, dark cobalt and finally meets the horizon in pale, glowing yellow.
This is a beautiful place we get to live in during our four years at UP.
The house where I grew up will never quite be the same home to me again, now that I accidentally said "I'm going home" to my mom when I was talking about UP.
This place has become like another home to me – a place where I can walk around in sweats and no makeup and not care, where I can sit by the front desk chatting with the hall receptionist and know most of the people who walk through the door. A place where I have made so many new friends that I hope I will know my whole life.
I came here not knowing what my major would be and only knowing one other person who went here. But it's come to be the place I couldn't wait to get back to by the end of summer.
It has something to do with the feeling here – the beautiful campus, the energy. But most of all it's the people that make UP what it is: more than just a campus with the professors and classes.
Everyone I've met at this school is passionate about something, and I think that is what makes this place so special.
Whether it's an English major who discusses Kerouac and Ginsberg before class or an engineering major who draws mathematically concise and chaotically colorful art to tac on his or her walls, everyone here has a passion.
The people I have met here make a difference. They go on service plunges and immersions in different states and countries. They want to grow up to be social workers, novelists and engineers. They want to build bridges, own restaurants or work in hospitals.
Everyone at this school is driven to do something in this world, to fight for something, to create something, to change something, even if they're still figuring out exactly what that is. These students, more so than the landscaping or the trees or the view are what make UP a beautiful place to live.
