Finding My “Thing” Through Trial and Error

In my first two years at Fordham, I have joined every club you can imagine. It has become quite an impressive list, spanning from Magic Club to College Democrats to Women’s Empowerment. The list, however, becomes a little less impressive when you consider how few of those clubs I’ve kept up with.

I would categorize myself as a joiner. I spent my first two semesters searching for a hobby that I enjoyed and religiously joining clubs in hopes to find one that I actually wanted to pursue. Regardless, I have probably joined (and abandoned) more clubs in my first two years at Fordham than most people do in their whole college careers. During my freshman year, weekly calls to my family always inevitably circled back to their favorite question: “What new club did you join this week?”

The reason for my serial abandonment of clubs was not a lack of motivation, but due to a lack of inspiration. I know it sounds cheesy, but I was determined to find a club that I really enjoyed. Sure, I could just simply attend weekly meetings, put the club membership on my resume and call it a day, but I wanted to find something that was “my thing.”

It may not come as a shock, but finding “your thing” does not come easy. It took me a semester of aimlessly joining clubs, attending random meetings and embarking on odd club sponsored trips, to find something that I felt truly passionate about.

Although none of the clubs I joined during the “trial period” were a perfect fit, they all helped narrow my search. Through each club I joined, I was able to meet a lot of new people and make some lifelong friends. In fact, I met my current roommate Carolyn as a result of attending a last-minute club meeting.

Around this time last year, I was pretty much ready to throw in the towel. Freshman year was coming to an end and it was fine if I didn’t find something that I really enjoyed. I had a good group of friends and my grades were fine, and most of all I liked Fordham. I was no longer concerned with finding something perfect for me.

Then, I found the newspaper. I’m proud that since joining the Ram, I can say I have finally found “my thing.” Writing, specifically for the news section, is something I enjoy doing weekly. Each week, I anticipate the arrival of an email containing possible stories to cover. I even look forward to setting up interviews with outside sources and getting student opinions.

Because I put less pressure on myself to succeed, the Ram came a lot easier than the other clubs I tried. More importantly, I returned to the Ram my sophomore year, meaning a club finally stuck! Although I am relatively new, having only become a member of the Volume 105 staff this January, I am so thankful to have found something that sparked my interest.

I won’t lie and say writing for the Ram came easy. Sometimes I still get frustrated trying to

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get in contact with unreachable sources or trying to hit daunting word counts (I don’t remember the last time I turned in something over 600 words!), but at least I have finally found something that is right for me.

While I definitely do not condone leaving something behind without giving it a chance, I have realized that it is an important step to learning and growing. I guess my point in writing this article is to provide reassurance that finding your passion takes time. “Your thing” is waiting, you just need to find it.

So try something new, and if you don’t enjoy it, give something else a chance!