Nick vs. the College Cliche

By Aruna G.

October 31, 2021

College is a truly mysterious place., We hear stories about it from our parents’ friends’ kids who tell us about roommate drama, eccentric professors, or carloads of unforgivable homework. Nick, though, did not fall into any of the cliches of college life, and I found myself at a sore lack of “crazy college stories.” He lives in an out-of-the-way quiet dorm, has a great roommate, and isn’t wholly overwhelmed by college work. He even gets to sleep on time. What’s the fun in that? Where was the scattered college student who survives on ramen, parties hard on Saturday nights, and then pulls an all-nighter for exams on the next day?

Instead, he spent our interview talking about his new hobby for maintaining a tidy whiteboard schedule, “Differential Equations with Linear Algebra” (his favorite class), and the app he wrote for fun over the summer, “IDBizz.”

I realized I shouldn't be surprised; this was Nick, our favorite NASA intern, and robotics aficionado. So despite some disappointment at the lack of tea, I was impressed by the mystical balance to college life he’s found that we all hope for and took frantic notes on the advice he lent.

To all KLS students, he proposes a reflective question: are you a breadth or a depth person? Are you someone who could spend hours on one niche passion or do you love spending time on a range of different activities? This question was very important to Nick as he transitioned to college where, he points out, “unlike high school, you get to pick all your classes”. With the decision of where to focus his efforts squarely on his shoulders, Nick realized he was a “breadth” person, interested in subjects from Econ, to Math, to CS. He’s found value in experimenting with interdisciplinary classes, taking time to explore each and discover crossover and says with conviction, “discovering that part of yourself, is one of the most important things going into college.”

Nick’s app IDBizz is available on app stores now! It's an app that enables people to easily access information about their local businesses' cultural identities. On it, you could find everything from an Italian-owned pottery store to an LGBTQ owned barber shop. Check it out!