Op-ed: Finding your niche

When I arrived on campus my freshman year, I was excited, nervous and ambitious. Like many of you, I had taken advantage of the clubs at my high school and was coming from a place where I was in the highest echelons of my community — a glorified high school senior. I was in charge of several clubs and had a solid community, but when I started as a college freshman, I suddenly lost all of that. Even so, I fantasized about the perfect Tufts experience during which I would join student government, be in the most prestigious-sounding organizations and have the coolest friends. I was confident that all would go according to plan.

In my first weeks at Tufts, I had whittled down my choices for clubs and activities: Model United Nations, Mock Trial, Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate and something fun like a campus publication. As you can tell, I didn’t aim low. My rationale for choosing these activities was that they aligned with my pre-law and political science interests, would look incredibly good on a resume and would serve as a continuation of what I had excelled in throughout high school. I thought I was all set. But the thing is, college and life do not work that way.

One of the things I hadn’t understood about Tufts — and college in general — is that when you are trying out for teams, dance groups, acapella groups or even running for an elected seat, you are competing against the best, and not everyone can get in, regardless of qualifications or academic and social caliber. I didn’t get elected to the TCU Senate or accepted onto the Mock Trial team. I was absolutely devastated. I hadn’t been mentally prepared. I thought that getting into Tufts and continuing to do my best would be enough.

I’m not saying that you won’t get into the clubs you want and that you’ll be miserable—far from it. What I am saying is that everything does happen for a reason. If you looked at my rationale for being a part of those organizations, the justifications seem pretty superficial. It’s not that I had terrible reasoning, but extracurriculars mean so much more than prestige and resumes. The most important understanding that I lacked about college is that organizations form the environment in which you live: they form your friendship groups and your communities; they foster your interests and push you to develop expertise and skills that classes can’t teach and they affect your happiness and provide you with a niche that makes you who you are. You need to find the niche that is right for you, and you may not know exactly what it is right when you begin college.

After my “failures,” I decided to try again. I attended General Interest Meetings for multiple clubs and made myself attend more than one meeting. It wasn’t a chore; it was enjoyable to meet all sorts of different people and see the wide interests and skills represented at Tufts. I met people who were incredibly professional, goofy and as ambitious as they were considerate. While I dropped some clubs along the way, by the end of my first semester, I had joined ALLIES, a civilian-military relations organization, and JumboRaas, a South Asian dance team. The two clubs were polar opposites, but undoubtedly my first families at Tufts. And whenever I felt that there was something lacking in my extracurricular or social life, I went out and found something to fill the void, such as becoming a Writing Fellow at the end of my freshman year. As long as you keep your eyes open, Tufts makes finding new activities incredibly easy, with a constant stream of club positions and cool opportunities opening up throughout the year.

It is also important to note that I didn’t completely develop my niche by the end of freshman year. You have to realize that building your Tufts community is an ever-evolving process that mirrors the growth you experience as an individual through the years. During sophomore year, I searched for and discovered new opportunities like The Monologues, which introduced me to a whole new group of inspirational people that I didn’t necessarily have freshman year.

As a rising senior, I’ve realized that my club experience is still lacking, so I am currently co-creating a new organization called the Union, which organizes debates with student and faculty speakers on Tufts-centric, national and international topics.

Within all these organizations, I found friends I would have never met otherwise, and I discovered interests and talents that I never knew I had. None of it came as quickly as I expected or in the way I imagined. Nevertheless, the point is that without the failures and successes I went through in finding my niche at Tufts, I would not have been able to become the campus leader or confident person I am today.

I want you to know that college is full of ups and downs. Tufts will take you on roads you could have never imagined. You may change majors. You may pick up a minor you never thought you would or join a club that you weren’t initially interested in. You will get rejected and find that things — whether they be organizations, positions or internships — don’t always go the way you wanted. It didn’t go the way I thought it would for me. But if there is anything I have come away with, it is that I am grateful it didn’t. I am grateful I got rejected because it made me a better person and pushed me to build my own environment.

I never dreamt of being this happy as I return to Tufts for my final year, ready to reunite with the best of friends and lead the best of organizations. As you begin your time here, I want you to keep this in mind: Keep an open heart, an optimistic outlook and that sense of adventure I know you all have. You will continue to build your niche throughout college and the process of finding one will be exciting and enjoyable. So, have fun and get right back up in the face of what you think is failure. Take it from my experience: everything works out in the end.