One of Uni's oh-so-many, adorably unique qualities is that high school students (subbies too) get to run around a college campus. We have off-campus lunch, and we can go anywhere during our free periods. So most Uni students have a good grasp of the general features of campus by the time we start our own college careers.

Lately you can see a lot of prospective college students being herded around like frightened sheep by a usually unenthusiastic tour guide. Personally, each one of these groups makes me laugh a little because I know more about campus than they can possibly glean from their short tour … and I'm just in high school.

I sort of look at them with a pitying expression and follow along as the tour guide explains things about each building they pass, often supressing the urge to add in little tidbits, such as "The vending machines are cheaper here" or "This is a great place to walk through when the temperatures reach subzero." You know, helpful little hints that no tour guide is going to tell them.

However, it's very interesting to hear descriptions of things that you don't give any thought to in your everyday life. For instance, as I was waiting for a bus on Friday, a tour group was passing by Uni. I was barely listening as the sheeplike crowd got a brief synopsis of Siebel, but then their leader started talking about Uni.

His description was something along the lines of, "Oh, this is a high school that is actually attached to our campus which is very unique to our campus. It's mostly professors' kids who go there, so it's a school full of very bright students." All the information was accurate, but I couldn't help but wonder, is that all that the people we share a campus with think of us?

Sure many students have at least one parent who is a professor, but that's not a defining characteristic. You aren't necessarily smarter because of that, and that's not how you got into the school. I was a little taken aback, and I also felt a little misread.

However, I let it slide when I realized that the U of I is more my campus than theirs, and as far as I'm concerned, I was here first and they can deal with it.