My primary goal as a resident assistant has always been to get other students involved. I honestly feel that moving out my folks’ home and into River Crossing was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Granger felt so distant from campus, and participation in clubs was a chore. I possessed a void in my being because I was disconnected from the community of which I wanted to be a part.
People involved in student life often speak about how involved students are successful student. This is completely true, but the impact of such living has a much broader impact then just reinforcing good study habits. Individuals involved in a community are simply happier. It is an intrinsic part of our being to desire becoming a vital cog that drives human society. It is this desire that will eventually drive all of us to collectively create a truly sustainable society.
In his book Soul of a Citizen, Paul Rogat Loeb recognizes the dependence of the individual on communal involvement. “Despite the myth of the rugged individualist, none of our lives is entirely of our own making.” It is impossible for a person to be completely independent of the world around them. We are all tied together, but this is something that makes us all stronger. Loeb continues, “In return, social involvement converts us form detached spectators into active participants. We develop new competencies and strengths. We form strong bonds with coworkers of courage and vision. Our lives become charged with purpose.”
I sit, writing these words, on the eve of the final academic week before spring break. On Saturday March 9th, I will accompany a troop of fellow students on a quest to contribute to our larger community. We will travel to the Cumberland Gap in Tennessee to assist in the creation of trails in the national park there. In the past several weeks, I have become friends with the others that will be traveling to the Gap to represent IU South Bend.
Honesty and compassion are the greatest ties that can hold a community together. When we spend time seeing through the eyes of our neighbors, we gain a visceral understanding of the necessities required for each of us to be successful; we also visualize the subtle yet strong connections between our own needs and the needs of others. Many times, it is not that our needs our different, but that we visualize our own needs in unique capacities.
I am blessed to be a cog in the most beautiful machine that is my community, and I will be especially blessed to have seen so many of my neighbors, my friends, become a part of something that makes them whole.
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