Natalie Vermeulen
Student Writer
Name: Ira Miller
Year: First-Year
Major: Music and Biochemistry
Ira Miller–a friend with a good sense of humor and a variety of interests, from chemistry to jamming on the piano to wearing weird shirts (which started with “gift and thrift Thursdays,” where he and his friends would find the strangest things they could in a thrift shop and wear them every Thursday). Get to know Ira a little more:
What is one of the craziest or most adventurous things you’ve ever done?
I think this was two summers ago, my dad and I did this thing called Ride the Divide. It’s a bike ride that follows the Continental Divide, and we went from Canada to Colorado. On our backs, we just biked out our tents and all that stuff. It was about six weeks of that. I think it was, 1,300 miles. It was pretty far. But there’s something simple about it, getting to that campsite at night and just chilling. And then the next day you just got on and rode for eight hours, and I don’t know, it was simple, and I like that.
What’s something new you’ve discovered about yourself since coming to college?
I’m not as smart as I thought I was. It was a little humbling. In high school, I got all A’s without doing too much work, and then I came to college and it’s a lot harder. It was a big adjustment for me. I was like, alright, I’m not invincible, there’s a lot of people smarter than me and I’ve got to work hard to see the results that I want. It was a step up. I wasn’t expecting that, although I should’ve been. It is college.
What makes a good friend for you?
I like people that have an original sense of humor. Most of my friends are pretty funny, I would say. That’s pretty important. I think another important thing is sharing, just being very open. Like if my friend Ryan, for instance, had a bowl of fries, I would just go over and take a fry without hesitation because that’s just what you do. Also being able to be vulnerable with them, that’s pretty important too, because that’s really the only way to build relationships. That’s a good friend for me. Also, they need to be attractive, like physically…I’m just kidding.
I also like messing with people, that’s a lot of fun. Like being able to go into a crowd, or just wearing a dumb shirt. I just appreciate that. When I see somebody wearing something stupid like ironically, you know, that’s funny. I like to mess with social norms. Keeps things interesting! And it’s just so fun to push people out of their comfort zones. I enjoy that a lot.
If you could be any animal, what would you want to be and why?
I would be a woodpecker because they can hit their head on a tree very very hard, and if we did that, we would be dead, very much. But being able to just nail something like that, I don’t know, just being able to plow through wood appeals to me. If there’s a tree, and you’re just like, I want to make a hole in this tree today, and just going up to that tree and digging a hole in it, you know? I’d appreciate that.