COLUMN: Get off your tuckus, and set some roots

In the two years I have called the University of South Dakota campus home, at least one thing has become apparent to me: Finding a sense of belonging is the most crucial aspect to a student’s college experience.

And when I say finding a sense of belonging, I don’t mean finding out which Vermillion bars are most accommodating to your drink choice. Belonging is a sense of feeling part of something, and knowing you are in the right place with the right people.

For me, my sense of belonging comes from The Volante newsroom. Working for the newspaper since my first semester at USD, I have invested my trust, my time and my respect in the people and product we put out weekly. And that, in a nutshell, is why I come back each year.

My road to belonging is my road alone, but for those students struggling to find purpose on this campus, half the battle is being willing to actively seek out organizations or activities that resonate with you. It is not enough to just go to class, hand homework in when it’s due and hang out with floormates every other weekend. You have the freedom to do any one of these things, but freedom is not equivalent to setting roots in Vermillion and developing a sense of mutual accountability with fellow USD students, faculty and staff.

At The Volante, as I rely on my staff to meet their deadlines and produce objective articles, they in turn rely on me to lead them in principle and work ethic. And this kind of obligation leads to a more permanent emotional tie between all of us at the newspaper, as I suspect is the case with a number of other student organizations on campus.

But to get to this point, I had to actively pursue and invest myself into a program that I cared about. That is something a student cannot find if they spend their free time holed up in their room playing video games, or going HAM each night at the Char Bar.

Don’t get me wrong, college should be about exploring who you are as an individual. But keep in mind that individual development requires an atmosphere of experience that you can only gain with others.

-Megan Card

Editor-in-Chief

The Volante