Every freshman gets the opportunity to go to an involvement fair, consisting of nearly every organization with those members begging you to come to their table and hear more about what they do. Now, personally, I signed up for probably 50 things, got about 1000 emails, and I went from wanting to get involved to a potential over-commitment problem. While you have all these people reaching out to you, you still have that intimidation factor going on. What if I do something stupid? What if I’m not qualified enough? Coming from a student who wasn’t very involved in high school, I didn’t really know if I would have the appropriate experience to take part in some things. Getting involved on a college campus as a freshman can be one of the most intimidating experiences. You have all these upperclassmen whom all know each other and probably have been apart of different groups for years, and you’re a little freshman who happen to go to this meeting, and you’re nervous.

My first official attempt at getting involved was going to hang out with the women’s rugby team, which was an experience that was unforgettable. Now, when you sign up for different organizations, you don’t really know what to expect, or even if you’re going to be a significant member. I’ll be honest, I was not cut out for that particular organization, but it gave me a boost of confidence, because there I was a freshman who walked from the dorms to the soccer fields by Lloyd Noble (and got lost) and these girls welcomed me in, as if they had known me forever. After the sad realization that rugby was not my thing, I went to a Campus Activities Council Crew meeting with some friends, and let’s just say you feel a lot better when you realize that there are hundreds of freshman that are just as eager and lost as you are. I’m at this huge meeting, learning about CAC and other cool things on campus and I liked it. One could say I started to find my place a little.

One day, while exploring different websites of organizations on campus, I found an application for CAC Howdy Week Vice Chairs. At this point in my early college days I was applying for nearly everything I came across. Yes, I was that kid. I applied for so many things that I forgot that I had applied for that particular position. A few weeks later I received an email from the chair in which he told me that I had gotten the position of Secretary on the Vice Chair staff. As a freshman I was still rather confused as to what I had gotten. I remember going to Vice Chair Development Day for CAC, and finally figuring out what I had been selected to do. After a few weeks, and meeting different people, I started to realize that getting involved wasn’t as scary as I thought it was. Because of that opportunity I was more motivated to sign up for other clubs that interested me and I’ve met a lot of people who I love to be around.

All in all, getting involved is a baby steps kind of process, unless you’re a kid like me, that dives in head first and decide to literally sign up for everything. It takes one brave attempt to fill out that application to gain the confidence needed to let yourself know that you can do it. It doesn’t matter how involved you were in high school, how many people you know, or how outgoing you are; all that matters is that you take that chance, even if you might be the only freshman at that meeting.

Kennedie Akinwande

Psych/Human Relations Sophomore

Dallas, Texas

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