The first advice I received from my freshmen RA when I arrived was to join an RSO (that’s Registered Student Organization, if my hip-lingo confuses you). In high school, I was an avid reader, so I figured I would join a book club, and since I was involved with journalism, Gay-Straight Alliance, and theatre, I thought I would join organizations revolving around any of those things.

I did not join anything like that (besides this, of course).

I was surprised to find that the clubs I love (and devote my time to on an average weekly basis) were new and exciting, and pretty simplistic.

1. Board Game Club

Before I tell you too much, I should probably clarify my absolute bias for this club, as I am their new co-president. That being said, this club is still amazing.

The board game club is a group that legitimately devotes 5 hours of their time on a Monday night (or 30 minutes. You’re always free to stop in for as long or short as you like) to playing any board games we want. We fill a cart with 20 or so games, and anyone is free to bring one of their own or request a game off of a list of (currently) 85 games. And if nothing else, you can play a bangin’ game of Cards Against Humanity.

2. Swing Dance Club

My love for dance culminated in a new way at this snazzy, retro club. Swing dancing is that cool, vintage, hipster fun you see in old movies, and you can learn how to do it in as little as one hour!

The club meets every Friday night in the Scrounge at 7 for a beginner lesson and a “beginner-plus” where you can sharpen up skills past the basic first combinations (which I have yet to do only once, despite being a member for close to a year now).

Then, if your legs haven’t turned to jello in that one-hour lesson, a social dance makes the Scrounge come alive in a sweaty, glorious festival of fancy footwork and smooth music.

3. Humans vs. Zombies

I must admit that this is a club I have just joined, but already I can tell this is going to be a beautiful, beautiful distraction from my classwork. The “team” (which is basically a giant group of people that are either super nerdy or super badass, I have yet to decide) roams the Green for an hour on Thursday nights having Nerf gun battles. Need I say more?

Alright, I will, anyway. Eventually, teams are determined with, you guessed it, humans and zombies that will face off in the legendary Z-Week. Z-Week occurs once each semester and the team prepares for it exquisitely to face off in missions, challenges, and across-campus battle. To me, it seems like a giant game of Senior Assassins from my high school, except instead of one target, every human is fair-game.

4. Zumba Club

I never expected to be someone that would like to be a “Healthy Hen,” and I would still say I am not even close to being perfectly healthy. That being said, Zumba Club has been a way to unwind, work out, and do something fun, especially when I bring a friend along. The combination of fast and slow workouts make the class fun, and classes are available almost every day of the week for free (so I can skip paying for the classes at the Little Bob).

5. Video Game Club

It would be unfair of me to include the board game club without paying homage to its often overlooked companion, the video game club. I have noticed that a lot of people that attend either board game club or video game club are also members of the other, but don’t let that fool you- video game club is an entirely different thing, filled with gleaming consoles that vary week to week, including an N64, XBox (I don’t know enough about video games to tell you if it's a One or a 360), and Wii-U. I attend mostly to watch my friends try and destroy each-other in Mario Kart, and with the Hen Zone temporarily closed, this is a great way to get a weekly video game fix.

Leave a comment below telling me what clubs I should investigate next!