“I don’t really want to check out Olivet. I’d rather go visit Chicago and spend a day there.”
These are the words of Lillian Ainsley, who initially had no interest in visiting Olivet Nazarene University. An aspiring collegiate swimmer from Florida, she didn’t originally consider Olivet to be one of her top college destinations. That was until a friend of hers that lived in Chicago told Ainsley to check out the small, Christian college in Bourbonnais, Ill to her. More specifically, the swim team they have at ONU.
“I wanted to swim in college,” Ainsley said. “I knew I wanted to do that.”
It was definitely a challenge to convince Ainsley to visit Olivet, but her friend succeeded. However, It wasn’t the only college Ainsley visited and considered to be her home for the next four years. One college she visited was Augustana College, an even smaller school in Rock Island, Ill.
Ainsley eventually reached out to the swim coach at Olivet, and met with her at the last minute. Thanks to the meeting, she ended up liking ONU the best out of all the schools she visited, and chose to attend the school. Ainsley described the coach as being extremely nice, and it definitely assisted in the decision to reside in Bourbonnais for nine months a year.
She really likes pushing herself to the next level in the pool. Ainsley enjoys “pushing herself past her limits” when she swims. When she swims, she says feeling sore after practice is a positive thing.
“I enjoy having a hard practice and feeling sore afterwards, and being like, ‘oh, that was tough,’” she said. Ainsley also said it’s important for her to stretch the night before she gets in the pool, because otherwise she would be “in trouble.”
As a freshman, Ainsley chose Multimedia Communication as her major. There are a variety of different concentrations within the department. Ainsley’s concentration is Journalism, but that’s not what she originally started out with. In fact, she doesn’t even remember the concentration she originally had.
Journalism majors need to have good communication skills for a lot of different reasons. An example would be asking crucial interview questions for an important story. Ainsley feels like she has those skills to better herself as someone with a Journalism concentration. She thrives in conversations with people.
“I like having conversations with people and I don’t feel awkward,” Ainsley described. “I know a lot of people get awkward asking more personal questions, [but] I want to hear people’s response.”
One of those people that she enjoys being around is sophomore Halle Larson. Larson, a teammate of Ainsley’s on the swim team, first got to know Ainsley at their first collegiate swim meet. They are each others’ source of encouragement, and have spent a lot of time together throughout college.
“Lillian is truly one of a kind,” Larson said. “She’s one of the most approachable people I know; she can strike up a conversation with anyone and make them feel instantly welcome.”
Ainsley puts an emphasis on wanting people to be comfortable around her. She enjoys listening to people and hearing what they have to say.
“A strength of mine is trying to make people as comfortable as possible, and I want to better cultivate that into whatever future God has for me,” she said.
