By Allie Harbuck<\/p>\n
When I first arrived at Harding back in 2015, I had a lot of questions. Why was going to 8 a.m. class suddenly so difficult? How did I get to the Reynolds building, and why was it so far from literally everything? What on earth was a Spring Sing? But most importantly, who were all of these people with Greek letters on their shirts?<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take me very long to learn that these \u201csocial clubs\u201d were a key part of life at Harding. Though recruiters and students alike had thrown around phrases like, \u201cover half of our students aren\u2019t involved in social clubs,\u201d I was less than convinced. It seemed like everyone I met was either in a social club or looking to join one.<\/p>\n
So, I ran full-speed ahead into mixers, open houses and constant socialization for the first few weeks of school. Then came the moment of destiny: third-round invitations. Long story short, I didn\u2019t receive an invitation from the clubs I was looking to join. I\u2019d become pretty invested in the idea, and it now seemed impossible to imagine my future without those jerseys.<\/p>\n
Club week wasn\u2019t easy for me that year. While I didn\u2019t have to cope with the constant exhaustion and lost voices that my friends suffered, I did have to square up against one of my personal fears: being left out of something.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Since the initial shock of my first club week, I\u2019ve dealt with my subsequent club-less club weeks in two ways: the first was withdrawing completely and pretending it wasn\u2019t happening. The second was participating in as many of the festivities as I could. It\u2019s probably no surprise that the second option was way more fun.<\/p>\n My sophomore year, most of my club week was spent in my dorm room, watching Netflix and being angry that I wasn\u2019t included. Unfortunately, this was pretty representative of my attitude about clubs in general at that time in my life. I had been hurt by clubs, so I was quick to find fault in the whole system.<\/p>\n But by junior year, I\u2019d toned down my crusade against clubs, and decided to actually enjoy club week. I was able to join in every chant at all-club, bring my friends coffee when they needed it and enjoy a week largely free from homework. Instead of spending my free time focusing on what I was left out of, I spent some much-needed time with friends who also weren\u2019t involved in clubs, appreciating the things I was able to be a part of.<\/p>\n For people like me, it can be hard to figure out where we fit in the grand scheme of Greek letters. It\u2019s hard to hear your friends turn down weekend plans in favor of functions you weren\u2019t invited to. It\u2019s disappointing to imagine that you might not have an opportunity to dress up in formal wear and take pictures on the Front Lawn. I found that for me, not being in a club allowed me to meet a lot of interesting people all over campus. I ended up really loving not being in a club. But by participating in club events and getting to know people in clubs, I\u2019ve also learned to see the benefits that everyone talks about. It actually is a great way to meet people and can be a valuable support system.<\/p>\n But for people who are in clubs, I encourage you to notice the things that aren\u2019t perfect and to do what you can to build bridges between our two worlds. If there\u2019s a way to be there for all those people crying in the student center when they don\u2019t get a bid; if there\u2019s an opportunity to invite someone who doesn\u2019t have a club of their own to an event, take the time to consider the world from our perspective.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While a club-less club week probably seems easy, breezy and beautiful, it presents a different set of challenges. The feeling of being left out \u2014 of not belonging \u2014 can be a deep blow to your personal identity and even your emotional stability. It can make you feel unwanted. So, this year, let\u2019s take this week to find little ways of reminding each and every person that they are treasured. When this random week in October is over, the only thing that will really matter is that we showed every person Christ\u2019s love, regardless of what they wear on Fridays.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Allie Harbuck When I first arrived at Harding back in 2015, I had a lot of questions. Why was going to 8 a.m. class suddenly so difficult? How did…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15068,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11787"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11790,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11787\/revisions\/11790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}