OCC Lessons: Live Together, Die Alone

March 23rd, 2009 at 10:08 am

It is hard to choose one thing, or even a few things, that I learned from the ONE Campus Challenge. I’m sure everyone else is struggling with this as well, which kind of makes my point.

You are not alone. I am not alone. We are together in this. Live Together, Die Alone. (Can you tell I’m a Lost fan?)

For the last two years I have been a campus leader, once at a community college and now at a university branch campus. Since I chose to go to school in “unconventional” places (and by this I mean I am not at a major University like many OCC participants), I have had a lot of trouble getting people interested in ONE. At a commuter campus like mine, everyone is extremely focused on school; it’s very much a “go to school, go home” campus. I started to get frustrated when people didn’t want to sign up when I would table, and I got really frustrated when no one showed up at the meeting I scheduled. I was pretty down in the dumps about it. And then I got the invite to the Power 100 Summit.

The Summit changed a lot of things for me. My roommate, a newbie to the Campus Challenge, was already in the Top Ten (and still is – GO BLUE!) and inspired me. I knew I could make things happen if I just tried, because I was watching her do it. I was also really inspired by conversations I had with other people. Some of them were experiencing the same thing I was experiencing, which surprised me because most of the people I talked to went to universities where people lived on campus – I had assumed that if people lived on campus, they would want to get involved. But hearing the stories of others also helped me. I realized I was not alone, which is how I had been feeling for the past few months.

At the end of the Summit, when I was taking pictures with people and saying goodbye, I felt ready to go home and tackle things. I was sad to leave, but knew that things would be better. Unfortunately, when I got home, they weren’t better. I still have only 16 student members, and still, no one will show up at meetings.

Every time something bad happens though, I think of the Summit. I think of the people I sat with at dinner, the girl I shared a room with, the ones I got lost in the city with, and I remember – I am not alone. We are together in this. Every blog post; Facebook note; ONE email reminds me of this. United we stand!

-Melissa Boles, Washington State University – Vancouver

This entry is part of a series of student submissions on “What I Learned From OCC This Year.” Click here for more info.