The Ultimate Campus Adventure
This isn’t a checklist. Don’t treat it as such.
It’s meant to make you aware of the types of adventures you’re probably not thinking about. Let it expand your mind and inspire the creation of your own adventures.
- Visit every campus building
- Go geocaching
- Try ice skating
- Check out the Main Stacks
- Throw a party
- Plan a prank for your friends
- Play hide and seek
- Play hide and seek in campus buildings past midnight
- Relax in the ARC sauna
- Ask a silly question in class
- Go on a road trip with your friends
- Explore the entire campus
- Visit the Rare Book & Manuscript Library
- Organize a surprise birthday party
- Take a trip to Japan House
- Visit the Observatory
- Get a tour of the Oak Street Library
- Check out the Distributed Museum
- Explore building basements
- Cough, cough... Ceramics Building
- Visit the barns and see the cows
- Swing by the president’s house
- Have a conversation with a random person at the Union
- Visit a professor’s office and ask, “What’s your story?”
- Stay on campus during the summer
- Read past Illio Yearbooks (and contact someone you find there)
- Visit the Arboretum past midnight
- Visit the cemetery
- Visit the Cybernetics Mural (IGB building)
- Visit the Spurlock Museum
- Visit the Krannert Art Museum
- Attend the Insect Fear Film Festival
- Visit the alumni center, learn something new, and reach out to an alum
- Explore Allerton Park
- Stay at Allerton Park
- Have dinner at a professor’s house
- Find the campus pineapples
- Study at the Beckman Institute
- Grab coffee with a professor
- Tour the Abbott Power Plant
- Tour the recycling center
- Go to the Homecoming Parade
- Audition for Pitch Perfect
- Sit with someone random in the dining hall
- Attend a class in every building (random ones count)
- Sneak into a random class outside your major and get inspired by something unexpected
- For one day, say “yes” to every random opportunity.
- Find somebody’s lost i-Card and return it
- Make a film and host a fancy premiere
- Bring a speaker to campus
- Visit the Conservatory & Plant Collection
- Attend a Krannert Center performance
- See the jet engines at Talbot Lab
- Go to the Engineering Open House
- And get inspired by the little kids
- And see the Tesla Coil concert
- Visit the Krannert Amphitheater at dusk and watch the sunset
- Visit the Krannert Amphitheater late at night
- Meet with a high-ranking official—such as a dean, or chancellor—for fun
- Put up flyers promoting your ideas or projects
- Go skydiving
- Go skydiving naked on the main quad
- Catch a movie at the Union
- Sign up for the Illinois Marathon
- Attend a house show
- Do stand-up comedy among friends
- Or just tell stories
- Visit the Rose Bowl
- Stay at the Union Hotel
- Attend Saturday Physics and Saturday Engineering for Everyone lectures
- Befriend an international student. At least talk to one
- Have a conversation with a bus driver
- And with a dining hall worker
- And with everyone and anyone, OK?
- Fucking talk to more people
- Drop out
- And come back
- Or never come back
- Journal for the first 30 days of college
- And for the 30 last days
- Find Lorado Taft's Sculptures Around Town
- Ask someone out
- And go on a date… or don’t
- Be rejected, and well, try again
- Be placed on academic probation
- Be placed on disciplinary probation
- Attend a Bollywood party, Garba, or Holi celebration
- Throw an Indian party
- Throw themed parties
- Go to a dance class
- Get an Illini Blizzard at the Altgeld Hall Dairy Queen
Tried one of these and have a good story to tell? Or want to add one? I'd be happy to include it and/or even share your story in future editions.
Use the appendixThe back of the book is part of the book.
The appendix keeps the examples, guides, profiles, and source trails close. The book gives them sequence, context, and a way to turn curiosity into action.