As Thanksgiving comes upon us, with it comes the twilight of yet another semester at Quinnipiac. With several semesters under my belt, I have learned many important things about the University, my courses, and myself.
For instance, I try to keep all of my courses in the academic quad, i.e. not over the metaphorical river and through the woods to the College of Liberal Arts, with a majority in the School of Communications and School of Business. However, for those of you who haven’t stopped reading already, I won’t scare you away with the lessons that I learned, because, quite frankly, chances are you won’t take them seriously and have to learn for youself anyway.
What I am talking about is getting involved. Quinnipiac has a multitude of different organizations and clubs on campus that you can develop your own little nook in. I considered listing all the clubs and organizations and then realized, I would have only another two lines of space left for myself so I quickly scrapped that idea. I then thought about inteviewing people who are involved in different clubs and organizations then realized it would be too much work, no longer my column and a news story.
Ok, so you are undoubtedly asking yourself, “Why should I get involved? I am happy the way I am right now.” Well you are wrong, you think you are happy but you really are not. Beg my pardon? Yes, I am saying that you are wrong. Fine, I will explain myself using a duck as an example.
When a duck is born, it quacks and walks around and thinks that it is happy. Then one day, well probably one moment, the duck discovers food and is then happy. But wait, the duck was just happy, how can it have done something differently and still keep the same emotion? Well it cannot. The duck is actually happier than it was before. Later on the same day as discovering food, it may discover that giant puddle near its nest. It is scared about going into it because, well the poor duck could drown and die. Can you really blame it for being scared? I certainly cannot. So one day, the mother duck finally convinces the younger duck to dip its little foot into the pond and do you know what, he hates it! Well after much explaining, the mother duck convinces the younger duck to get into pond and loves it! You are essentially the young duck who fears change, even if it may seem natural to people from the outside. Just as it is very conceivable to imagine a duck in a pond, it is concievable for college students to get involved in college activities.
Two weeks ago, I was had the amazing opportunity to spend a large part of the week in Dallas, known to Texans as the “Big D.” There we did not only get to know the arts of journalism but each other, and ourselves, to a greater extent than we could have ever if we we had not gone.
Just across the street from the hotel was the Sixth Floor Book Depository, a fascinating building, from where, many people believe John F. Kennedy was assassinated 40 years earlier.
If I had not have gotten involved in the Chronicle, I would have never had the opportunity to geto know myself, history, and the eight amazing people who started out as collegues and came back close friends.
For practical reasons, involvement is another spot on your resume, a filler of time and a means of meeting people. For realistic reasons, however, becoming involves does all of the aforementioned and much more…it creates a person.
