Before coming into Baruch, I was worried that I wouldn’t feel at home like I did back in high school, since most of my friends had parted ways for college. I spent the first week of college going from class to class in a foreign setting, not sure if I had made the right decision to come here. It wasn’t until a few days before club meetings began that Qi Qi Wu, a member of the United Chinese Language Association (UCLA), sent me a message inviting me to come to their first General Interest Meeting. She was so warm hearted and quickly convinced me to join.
Qi Qi had said that many Midwood High School students were in UCLA and it wasn’t until I got there with my friend, Melina, that I realized what she said was true. When Melina and I arrived, there were already a whole hallway full of future UCLA members waiting to go into the room since it was still being set up. We waited in a semi-secluded corner and it wasn’t long until we were quickly approached by Sandy Dai and Wendy Lei, who welcomed and thanked us for coming to their meeting. We clicked immediately and went on talking about our past high school experience and how we were adjusting to this new change. Sandy and Wendy even gave us a few tips on how to survive college!
After about ten minutes of waiting in the hallway and becoming acquainted with many new people, we went inside the meeting room which quickly became full due to the large amount of people who showed up. When we settled in, the UCLA E-board members introduced themselves while showing us a Powerpoint presentation. We then moved onto ice breakers, we played the whisper challenge, pictionary, and a dissing game. We were all dying of laughter from how much of a fool the volunteers for the whisper challenge were making of themselves. At this moment, I finally felt like I belonged, as if I had found my second home.
As we finished up with the last game, the whole group huddled up together for a group photo. As we finished up posing for the photo, the food finally arrived. It was apparent how hungry we all were with the cheers that erupted throughout the room. We were served many different types of Chinese food and beverages. I also got the opportunity to meet Qi Qi face to face for the first time along with Isaac and Sandy Mei while waiting in line for food.
This was a great experience and has made me realize how nice and welcoming people are. I cannot wait to officially join UCLA in the upcoming week and acquire many more of these memories for my college journey.
