N.C. State and Raleigh are filled with exciting — sometimes obscure — opportunities for exploration. And those experiences outside of the classroom are often the most engaging. The outgoing editors at Technician have compiled a list of ‘Things we wish we would have done’ — and it goes like this …

Art appreciation

University Theatre put on two solid shows this semester — both of which sold out. Don’t get us wrong, film screenings at Witherspoon Cinema are fun, but there’s something special about seeing your peers on stage.

The Crafts Center is another resource we wish we would have taken advantage of. It hosted several delightfully quirky opportunities for students (and the public) to learn Chinese brush painting, how to paint cat pictures, pottery — the list goes on.

Coding

Chris Bosh, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and other high-profile personalities teamed up for a PSA about the importance of learning how to code. It’s an important skill to have in today’s knowledge-based economy.

SAS, SQL, HTML 5, Java, or even something as simple as Python can go a long way in making students more competitive in the workplace, and better able to execute their own ideas and start web-based businesses.

Several high schools in the nation are now making coding classes mandatory. We think an introductory coding class ought to be a required course for N.C. State students.

Clubs

Take time to find the club that really fits your personality. It could be a sports team such as the Quidditch Club or something as hands-on as Open Hardware Makerspace, there’s one out there that you can really enrich your college experience. Great things can happen at special-interest clubs — things such as Apple.

At the very least, the meetings are a great place to score some free pizza. By the way, we wish we wouldn’t have eaten so much free pizza.

Soak it in

N.C. State has appeared in “Ugliest Campuses” lists — but it’s clear the list makers never set foot in the JC Raulston Arboretum (though it’s remote, it’s still technically part of campus). It’s surprising how many students don’t know about or have never been to the Arboretum.

And when you’ve soaked in enough natural floral scents and colors, trade them for the artificial ones in Downtown Raleigh. And we don’t mean only on Thursday-Saturday night.

Several of these suggestions seem pretty simple and straightforward — but that doesn’t mean they’re easy to do. People often describe the four years at university as a “safe bubble,” but it’s okay for that bubble to burst.