EVANSTON — With family weekend imminent, former engineer and freshman Cole Thompson finally came out to his parents as an SESP transfer. “I just had to—I couldn’t keep living a lie,” Cole answered, when asked about his newly mustered courage.

When asked about what the general response to his transfer had been, Cole smiled, “Northwestern’s a really accepting place with a strong SESP community and it really helped me come to terms with my major. This supportive environment really helped me come out to my parents.” An interview with his friend Amy Williams, WCAS ’19, confirmed this, “Yeah, like I don’t really care. If you’re more of an Intro-to-Psych-Services person than a Finite-Element-Methods-in-Mechanics kinda guy, that’s totally okay. You do you.”

Fortunately, Cole’s parents took the news relatively well. When asked about the event, Cole’s mom commented, “It was really emotional for me… I mean, I think on some level I already knew. I was just waiting for him to feel comfortable enough to tell me. It’s really nice to see him take HDPS 341 [Building Loving and Lasting Relationships: Marriage 101] seriously.”

On the other hand, Cole’s father’s feelings were mixed. “I’ll be honest it was a tearful moment for me but… if that’s what he wants,” his father recollected, “I just always imagined us as a normal family. You know—white picket fence, large lecture classes, a deflated grade… None of this ‘The small school that thinks big’ craziness.”

Though Cole’s family has a lot of growing to do, sources are reporting they seem to be adapting pretty quickly, although Cole’s father has been allegedly spotted perusing anti-SESP therapy brochures.