If I were to boil down my college experience to two things that glow with the love I have gotten and the love I have given, it would be the SBU Dance Team and Her Campus.
I can’t possibly put into words how these clubs have each given me a set of helping hands to push me when I’m dragging, to catch me when I fall, and to applaud when I succeed.
The Dance Team has been a part of my life since my freshman club fair.
The air of Butler Basement is… not good. Anyone who has been down there on a Sunday in April can tell you that (I’m looking at you Modern mountain).
But do you know the feeling when you can find immense comfort in something others find uncomfortable?
That’s exactly how I feel when my muscles are burning, my chest is heaving with no refreshing air, and my sweat is dripping to the floor. I couldn’t be more elated than I am in those moments.
I am truly an elevated version of myself when we are in our seven-hour days in the basement listening to the same script for the millionth time over, while putting on and ripping off costumes during quick changes.
While the moment will be bittersweet, there will be no better culminating feeling than sitting in our living room and watching our last show for the first time after our last bow.
Her Campus, my other most important love, has been in my life since junior year, and if I could go back and do anything sooner, it would be to join Her Campus earlier.
This club has given me so much, and I can only hope to have left a small mark on it as well. Growing up, I only had a brother. While I love my brother very much, it always felt like I was also missing a sister. Her Campus has given me a semblance of those relationships, and I could not be more thankful.
It has allowed me to grow in my mind, heart and soul. It has opened my thoughts to self-reflective practices that led to the sharing of common experiences, which reinforce that I am not alone.
My favorite phrase I have taken to saying is “I have never had an original experience”. This phrase is the thing I am most grateful for surrounding Her Campus because the members vulnerability, love, and care that they handle the club with has allowed to not have an original experience, but to share and grow in our collective experience, and THAT, is something special.
Again, there are no words that I can fully use to express how much these clubs have provided me and changed me for the better. To use a favorite quote, “Because I knew you, I have been changed…. for good” <3.