It’s that feeling you get in the early morning when your bed calls out, “Don’t leave my comfort!” and you have to say, “Shut up! I do too want to go to class!”

It’s mornings like these that most of us are having lately, with finals and projects due out the ying-yang. It’s when even sitting through class seems like a waste of time, despite the need for knowledge to regurgitate later. It’s during the quiet moments in the bathroom or the library computer lab that strange ideas come to us. Some scream in your face and others whisper, “Do a column on me. No, really. I’m a worthy topic — just ask anyone.”

After deciding that other people hear voices, too, you write the ideas down. In this second-to-last column I’ll ever write, I’d like to take time out for these mostly-unsung ideas for columns.

Ex-boyfriends and their current interests — More than one person on this campus is highly relieved that this one will never make the docket. The idea came from a magazine called Face, from the United Kingdom. In it, a writer had talked to the girlfriends of all her ex-boyfriends and had even photographed each one laying in a bed in pajamas, wanting to “see them as their boyfriends did.” Freaky, but intriguing all the same. What I will say about the men no longer in my life is that I learned a lot — mostly about what I don’t want, with the exception of one, and Aaron, I’ll always remember junior year fondly.

The NIU honors program — Sadly, a fellow columnist snatched this idea up before I could; however, while I heard numerous accomplishments of the students at the honors award banquet Sunday, I also read the names of too many people to count that had dropped honors long ago. Many had lived on the honors floor and others were by all rights driven, high-achieving people. Why did they quit? I don’t know. But the answers I have heard amount to, “It’s a waste of time.” On Sunday, NIU President John Peters re-emphasized his wish for an honors college. Well, there’s a world of work waiting for you, Mr. Peters.

The NIU Huskie Marching Band — Each home football game, the band gets out and plays no less than five separate times that day. What people don’t know is there’s about 15 to 20 hours of practice per week coming before those performances.Talk about commitment.

The forthcoming arena — So much could be said about this building, but truly, it’s water under the bridge. The people who fought for and against the project are merely a memory to some and unknown to others. Sara Waggle was a sophomore when she collected more than 1,000 signatures asking for a referendum for the students on the project, only to be denied rudely by Michael LaPidus, Student Association senate speaker. Opposition came at every turn — from NIU students to those on the Illinois Board of Higher Education Student Advisory Committee, who made a recommendation to the IBHE not to pass the project. Yes, even students who didn’t attend NIU thought the project reeked of injustice.

But, aside from all that, will the arena provide necessary opportunities for NIU? Yes. And that’s the end of that story.

Why you should work at the Star — I actually saw another student paper do this — the Daily Illini at University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign. It’s also something I want to write every time we get a complaint in which the complainer says something like, “You don’t know anything about journalism, etc.,” Instead, we just ask them to apply.

Facts about the Star I wish everyone knew include: 1. The Northern Star receives NO student fees 2. The students run the show and make the money and 3. It’s a real job, and we work hard, all 140 of us. Recently, a group of community college students came to tour the Star and attend a conference on journalism here at NIU. They couldn’t believe how much space we had and the kind of technology we work with. It was then that I realized how lucky we are.

Other subjects I wanted to cover included why cats meow and where do babies come from, but the “Big Book of Tell Me Why” already takes care of these. Also, I’m out of space.