Why I'm Proud to be a Huskie
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Title
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Why I'm Proud to be a Huskie
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Contributor
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Heather McCoy
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Creator
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Heather McCoy
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Online Submission
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Yes
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Submission Consent
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Yes
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Posting Consent
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Yes
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Contributor is Creator
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Yes
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content
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Originally written 2/17/2008
I of course have been thinking a lot about NIU recently and about what happened there. But as an alumna, I’ve also been thinking about much more than that. NIU to me, unlike to many current or prospective parents of students, is a very real place, full of memories of some of the best times of my life. While people all over the country are defining it by a single tragedy that occurred there, I have always defined it by its people and everything it has to offer.
NIU means the world to me, even still. It’s so terrible that something like that would happen there, especially since, from an Orientation perspective, parents are going to forever more associate NIU with shootings—even though that same thing could happen anywhere their child goes to school.
But the good part about it is that students aren’t seeing it that way. Current students are pulling together and being even more proud to wear NIU attire than they ever were. Students who were once apathetic about their school are now proud to represent something—the ability to overcome.
And it is that ability to overcome that is going to rebuild NIU into something even greater than it was when I was a student. It is something that will take time, patience and heart, but I think a school built on those things is much stronger than one built on winning football teams or award-winning research projects. The school I’ve always loved will have something more than all of its close associates. Maybe it won’t be something tangible, but it will be irreplaceable.
And I think that’s why I am—why I’ve always been—so proud to be a Huskie.
