As soon as you enter your freshman year of college you are immediately given all of this information about the amazing activities and extracurriculars that you can and should get involved with here at JMU. You probably either think "wow, this is great there are so many things that interest me that I want to be a part of" or you think "wow, this is a lot."

JMU is an amazing school and they have over 300 student activities that range from social to academic to athletic. You could walk around campus every day and see someone sporting a t-shirt or sweatshirt for a different organization and these people love to show off what they're a part of. They're proud of it. Most of the people that you talk to will say how they've found their second family in this organization and that it has made JMU feel like home to them. They've met lifelong friends, attended and participated in many events pertaining to their organization, and have just felt like they belong with the people they've met.

While that is great and I am very happy for all of those people, I think it's important to look at the people on the other side of this situation. Every day JMU floods our emails with information about new clubs on campus and events happening that we should all go and get involved with. "Join this organization, its great!" or "Fill out an application for this club!" It's great to see that JMU promotes all of this and that they want all of their students to feel involved, but the problem is that a majority of these great organizations are extremely selective with who can even be a member. And this doesn't even include fraternity and sorority life (that's a whole other story).

Students come into college thinking that it is going to be amazing and they're going to be able to get involved in all of the extracurriculars that were never even offered in high school. So we get all excited, fill out our applications, go to info sessions and meet the people that are already members and then we wait, checking our emails every day to see if we got an answer. If you're lucky you receive an email saying they want to set up a preliminary interview with you, and that gets you really excited. You tell all your friends that you're one step closer to being a part of this amazing organization and everyone is just super happy. And you think you nailed the interview. You bonded with these two people and you have so much in common and they know so much about you and why you want to join this organization. You're feeling great about your chances. Then a week or two later you get an email saying that they've decided to go in a different direction, but thanks for applying and definitely reapply next semester!!! More like definitely NOT.

The next couple of days you're upset and you're disappointed in yourself because you keep wondering what you could've done differently. You talk to your FrOG and they tell you "you don't want to be a part of an organization like that anyway" or "they're very cliquey once you are in, it wouldn't have been right for you." You hear from others that that organization is very selective and you should be happy you even got an interview because a lot of people don't. You shake it off and realize there are so many other things you can do.

So you decide to apply for an alternative break because they need all the help they can get rebuilding homes for people in need right? Turns out you just weren't good enough for that either. Bummer.

JMU seems like they always want to have people involved in all of these organizations, but when it comes down to it, they are so selective. And when you look at the people that they do take, they either have some amazing story about how they overcame something terrible in their life, or have 1000+ hours of community service, which makes your 150+ hours look like nothing, or they have the most outgoing extroverted personality you have ever seen in a person.

The point is that getting turned away from multiple organizations that you felt so strongly about just plain sucks. There is no easy way to put it. It sucks. It makes you feel like you didn't have anything special about yourself or your resume that made you stand out to the committee. It really puts you down.

So for anyone out there, who has experienced this or something similar, just remember that you are special and you do have amazing qualities that make you unique. And just because some organizations here don't realize that, does not make you any less of a person. One day you are going to find that amazing group of people or amazing organization that will make all the other ones look as if they were never right for you in the first place.

Keep your head up and enjoy your time here at JMU, because it still is the best place on Earth and four years go by way too quick.