It’s the beginning of the fall semester, which means social club events are in full swing. It’s a very exciting time for students, especially freshmen. Social clubs are a great way to get involved, meet cool people and grab ahold of the college experience.

I’m starting my junior year of college, and I’ve never been on campus for a fall semester. Being a transfer student and studying abroad robbed me of my opportunities to participate in the social club process. In a way, I feel like I’ve missed out. A lot of my friends are active social club members and when they talk about it, I struggle to contribute to the conversation. To say the least, it’s a little odd not to know much about something that seems to be such a major part of the “Harding experience.”

That being said, I’ve decided to go ahead and begin the social club process. I’ll admit, I was super hesitant to do this. At my last university, I joined a sorority which gave me a lot of negative feelings toward the process. Most of all, I felt a little weird about doing the whole thing as a junior. Some things that turned me off were the fact that my entire joining class is bound to be made up of mostly freshmen, and it can be very time consuming.

Luckily, I have some people in my life who know me better than I know myself and push me to get outside my comfort zone. I went to the officer open house and felt very much at ease. I felt comfortable talking to some of the officers since they were already my friends as well as signing up for social clubs that I already knew I was interested in.

I’ve come to realize that there are major advantages to joining a social club as an upperclassman. One is already having a few friends, or at least someone I’ve had a class with, in each social club. This made attending open houses more comfortable. I had people to talk to and introduce me to other members. I also had a feel for what they were like, so I knew which ones would be a good fit for me.

I think this whole experience can be a bit more overwhelming for freshmen. There’s so much growth that takes place during one’s first year of college. It can be hard to find where you belong or to know what kind of crowd you want to surround yourself with. Going through it all with two years under my belt has been an enormous help. I would advise anyone who’s older and still wants to join a club to go for it. Age really doesn’t matter so much in college, and being more grounded can be beneficial when doing something for the first time.