Building a Connection

       As I begin my freshman year of college, I have all of these insecurities. Will people like me? Will I make friends? Is college way too overwhelming for me to handle? Am I going to fail? Amongst these questions come along nerves, nerves telling me that I should be scared for what is to come. When I arrived on campus, my nerves were going crazy. People would walk by nod and smile and say hello and it would put me at ease. Many of them were from different groups on campus, one being the Student Government Association (SGA). They made me feel a little more at ease with all the events they planned each weekend

     This weekend I participated in paint night/open mic night with a few people I met while being here. This experience made me think of the poem "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost. The poem talks about two figurative neighbors who are separated by a wall because of all their differences. Paint night made me think of this poem because despite all our differences and all our insecurities we all came out that night to paint. We broke down the borders of being scared and the people who participated in the open mic night showed their true colors and let people into their lives. They broke down their walls to show their talent to people they never met. At the end of each performance everybody clapped supporting one another regardless of our differences. In the poem by Frost, the wall that separated the two figurative neighbors kept breaking down due to nature and how the ground moved. Today we break the wall down by being more accepting of each other's differences.

      While moving in I also experienced stress. Stress that a lot of people were facing, whether it be arguing with their parents or siblings because they wanted their room the way they wanted or it be because the elevators took too long. Everyone that day was so excited to move in their son or daughter or to move in as a student. At times tempers were high and the poem, "Accident, Mass. Ave" by Jill McDonough made me think of this day. A student and their parent were arguing because the parent wanted her daughters room to be how she thought it should be, however the daughter wanted the room to be how she imagined it. In the poem, two drivers collide and there's an accident, after of which both drivers are so heated they begin to argue. They take a minute to look at the damage but realize nothing is wrong. The driver who was hit realizes why he and the other driver became so enraged and says, "We were scared. Weren't we". This is like the mother and daughter, they are both scared of new beginnings and being on their own. They fought over something that wasn't important and wouldn't make a difference either way.

      While reading the poem “Learning to Read”, by Frances E. W. Harper I connected moving from a small town in Pennsylvania to a big city such as Baltimore for oppurtunities that I would not have at home. In the poem, a man didn't have the opportunity to learn how to read because of his background and where he was from. I chose to go to Loyola to create an opportunity that I would rather not have at home. Though I still had the opportunity to attend a university in Pennsylvania, I chose to come to Loyola because it was the right fit for me.

      The volunteers I had while moving in made the process less stressful than I thought it would have been. These volunteers are acting as Jesuits and doing service in their Loyola community. The dedication that the volunteers had while helping me move in made me want to do more. I became extremely interested in CCSJ (Center for Community Service and Justice) and wanted to get involved right away. While reading Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach’s essay, “The Service of Faith and Promotion of Justice in Jesuit Higher Education”, I realized that participating in the service-learning tract I would be able to lead by example and give service to those less privileged. I am looking forward to participating in Soccer Without Borders which is an organization that offers after school soccer and tutoring opportunities to refugees in the surround area. I am looking forward to leading by example and getting involved around my community.