I still remember when I chose my fate. It was seventh grade and everyone in our middle school was required to learn a foreign language. While most of the kids in my grade decided on Spanish, my friends and I chose to exercise our need to be different and set out on our French journey. Since then, it’s been almost 8 years now of taking French every semester and every quarter. But as all things come to an end, this is my last week of French class ever.

While not every major has a language requirement, Communication Studies most definitely does. And for those of us who did not get AP credit, we enter into college continuing on our long road of conjugations, new vocabulary words, and movies with subtitles. At first, the idea of “wasting” a class block every quarter for a year sounded like maybe the worst thing ever, but I have to say that looking back, I’m going to miss some of the experiences I had fulfilling my language requirement at NU.

First off, I loved my professors. Every single one of them was wonderful and I even had a few twice. While they run the classes completely in French, they somehow manage to keep my mind from exploding. My favorite instructor, Professor Dempster, brightened my day even when I was navigating through a language I knew almost nothing about despite studying it through all of middle and high school. Her fun, bubbly personality made class interesting.

Outside of class, French opened the door for a few interesting cultural experiences. Because we were required to go to two language events per quarter, I found myself doing things on campus that I otherwise would not have even thought about. I attended panels on the use of foreign language in the workplace. I spent time in Allison Hall eating free food while practicing my French with other students, professors, and native speakers. I even enjoyed going to the Block Museum on campus, where they screened French films each quarter through the Ciné-Club. While I showed up to fulfill a requirement, I always found myself laughing, crying, and overly invested in what was happening on screen.

The best part of the past year and a half of French, however, has been my classmates. Because I take most of my classes within my major and certificate program, I rarely have distribution classes with the same people. French was the exception. I am finishing this quarter with the same people who sat in class with me on my very first day of Freshman Year. Throughout our time together, I have gotten to meet students of all majors and find out more about their specific Northwestern experiences. My little French family has reminded me of what interesting and inspirational people I get to work with every day.

While I may not have a fabulous French accent, I have to say that coming out of my language classes I have gained much more than I expected. New friends, cultural immersion, and a colorful community of speakers made “The Language Requirement” not so bad after all.