Written by Emma Jones
Fourth round club invitations are going out today, and there are going to be some people who didn’t get into the club they wanted, or didn’t get into a club at all — and I want to start by saying that I know it sucks. And I don’t want to offer empty consolations to you.
My freshman year, I didn’t get into a club. I remember being in my 8:30 a.m. class, and the girl next to me got her invite over email from the club I also wanted, and I refreshed my inbox for about half an hour before I finally accepted that I didn’t have one coming. And I was so mad; I thought I had put in the effort to make people remember me and want me in their club! I also just felt very alone, because it felt like all of my friends had gotten into clubs, and I didn’t know any older students at Harding who weren’t in a club.
By the time club week rolled around, I had let myself become very bitter about the club process as a whole. But I think God got so sick of my bitterness that he gave me the best week ever to eventually make me realize that everything had happened the way it did for a reason. I joined the newspaper staff (which has obviously worked out for me). I got invited to go on a recruitment trip to Northwest Arkansas and flew on the Harding jet. I went on a field trip to Little Rock with the public relations majors, which was super fun. The guy I liked asked me out.
That’s not to say I wasn’t still upset for a while about not getting into a club. Harding culture places such a large emphasis on social clubs, and it felt like I was missing out on the Harding experience because I was not a part of one. Even now, I get frustrated with the oft-quoted sentiment that “your social club does not define you!” coming from people who have not experienced a time when it didn’t for them. And it is true, you as a person are not defined by if you are in a club or by what club you are in, but clubs do define your experience at Harding, even if you’re not in one. There’s a reason why one of the first questions people ask when meeting someone new is what club they are in.
As a senior who’s now in two clubs, I can say it becomes much less of a big deal as you get older. Clubs are fun, but they are not necessary to the Harding experience. I hope anyone who didn’t get into a club this year can come to realize that. My advice specifically for those who didn’t get into a club is to try and find what other opportunities are available to you and get involved there. Newspaper was my saving grace; it allowed me to make some of my closest friends my freshman year and work on something that I found I had a passion for. You may feel very alone, especially if it feels like all your friends got into clubs and that’s all they can talk about anymore, but please be assured that there are so many other opportunities to meet people and be involved on campus.
