When you get to be an old person (a.k.a. a second-semester senior), everyone around you gets nostalgic. They talk about everything they enjoyed about their college experience and everything they regret not doing. Time and time again, I listened to my friends bring up the one thing they are thankful they did or regret missing out on: getting involved in something.

I have seen both sides of this coin. I spent my freshman year of college carousing with a group of friends, enjoying my life, and doing well in my classes. I was not involved in a single club or organization and I wasn’t unhappy. But I spent a lot of time bored, and a lot of time unfulfilled, and definitely more than once I sat in my dorm room and thought, “Is this what college is supposed to be about?”

So when my sophomore year rolled around I decided I wasn’t going to spend my college years streaming Netflix. I dove headfirst into a variety of organizations and activities, and through the ups and downs, I learned a few important things about what it means to be involved in college.

1. It gives you a community, which you need on campus.

This was actually the first piece of advice my older sister gave me about going to college. She went to a big SEC school with 27,000 other students, and she got involved in two different organizations her freshman year because she said it was so difficult to get connected otherwise. Like a typical second child, I thought I was smarter than her and didn’t heed her advice. My campus only had 11,000 students, so it would be way easier for me to get a community. Right? Wrong. I had a good relationship with my freshman year friends, but we weren’t a community. I wanted friends I could call to get Waffle House at 2 a.m., friends who would show up at my dorm and say, “Get in, I want to go to Target.” The friends I made through my organizations were much closer, because when you’re involved in something together it creates a bond deeper than just friendship.

2. Try everything, anything, because you never know what will work.

If you really think about it, college organizations are so exciting. They are usually free and they are in place literally to give you friends and advance you as a human. There are countless options, from academic clubs to student government, Greek organizations to campus ministries, club sports to improv troupes. I thought I would find my community within a Bible study; while I made great friends through it, I actually found my community through a sorority. I would have never guessed in a million years that I would end up there, but I am so thankful I kept an open mind.

3. It's never too late to get involved.

I can’t tell you how many people I know who complained about having nothing to do, but when I asked if they thought about getting involved in an organization, would say, “Well, it’s too late now.” I’m on staff for my university’s literary and arts magazine, and we have a 30-something-year-old father on the team. He is just as integral to the team as any other member. If he knew it wasn’t too late for him to get involved, it’s definitely not too late for you.

4. Getting involved is more than just showing up.

There are three types of members: upper, middle, and lower members. Upper members are highly involved and deeply rooted within the organization. Middle members are the vast majority of members; pretty involved, they have ties to the organization and the people within it. Lower members do the bare minimum and usually simply show up to required events; they are in it for their resume, not for community. It’s not a bad thing to be a middle or even lower member in some of your organizations; if you were an upper member in everything you’d likely explode. But if you’re only a lower member in everything you do, you likely still feel unfulfilled or you quit things because you didn’t feel connected. Usually you decide how much you get out of an organization, because you get as much out of it as you put in.

5. This is for your benefit.

If community isn’t selling you then let’s talk job market. You’re going to graduate with a degree (or two) and that’s really great. However, when you apply to jobs, you are up against tons of people who also graduated with your degree. What sets you apart is what you’ve done with your college years. Organizations show you can balance school and responsibility, they often provide leadership opportunities, and, perhaps most importantly, they provide you with a larger network. Almost every single internship, job, or spectacular connection I’ve made in my college years has been through an organization. I personally prefer the community aspect, but having a bomb.com resume doesn’t hurt.

6. It's OK if some of them don't work out.

You might not find your community in the first organization you try, and that’s fine. Often times that’s not necessarily your fault or the fault of the organization. No matter how hard an organization works to be inclusive, it still involves human beings. We are a fickle bunch, we make mistakes and we’re sometimes very insecure. Don’t give up and don’t doubt yourself if some of them don’t work out how you’d hoped. Your community is out there, I promise.