DeKalb | NIU estimated that nearly 6,000 students came to NIU on Thursday, planning to start down a new road in their lives.

“College is scary and exciting,” said biology major Amber Misiowiec, an incoming freshman with mixed emotions. “It’s scary because I’ve never lived alone. It’s exciting because it’s a new experience for me.”

While some students are nervous about leaving home for the first time, other students see living away from home as no big deal.

“It’s no biggie leaving home because I pretty much live alone anyway,” said sophomore accountancy major Aaron Vowels. “I will miss my grandparents, but who doesn’t.” Vowels said he wasn’t nervous because he knows the NIU campus pretty well.

“I always knew I wanted to be here,” Vowels said. “My aunt also came here and graduated in 1994.”

While some students use college as a chance to leave home, others come to NIU to be closer to home, said sophomore communication major Allison Grissom. She also plans to run on the NIU cross country team.

Some residence hall students plan to use their room space to fit as many things as possible. Sophomore art education major Lena Izzo brought forty-five boxes of shoes into her dorm room, some of the boxes containing up to three pairs of shoes. She also had bins with even more shoes in them.

“My mom is making me get a shoe holder like the ones in Chuck E. Cheese’s,” Izzo said. She also had a container filled with thirteen sunglasses.

“I have an accessories fetish. I also have lots of purses,” she said. Izzo came to NIU because of the art education program and because she knows a lot of people on campus.

There were some parents who had a hard time saying goodbye.

“It’s pretty hard because he is my only child,” said Don Wilders. Wilders’ son Steve is a freshman history major this year. “There are mixed memories of him,” he said. “It’s hard watching him move on and clean his room out.”

Some parents were glad to be able to send their children to college.

“College is a great opportunity for my child,” said Michael Bragg about his son, freshman accountancy major Mardell Thompson. “I wish I had the same opportunity.”