How many of you guys have asked yourselves “Why do we have blocks and what is the point of them?” these were the questions I would ask myself my first few days at Baruch. Why are we going to every single class together with the same exact people? Are we in middle school? However, on Labor Day weekend when I went on a trip to Pennsylvania with my team, Baruch Women’s Volleyball team, to the Desales tournament, I finally understood the point of these blocks. The point is not to force us into liking each other, but to enable us to become friends and build connections with others that we never would have thought we would have in the first place.
That Labor Day weekend was filled a bundle of emotions: joy, defeat, and frustration. We left the tournament with a record of 3:1, losses to win. On Friday, we played Rutgers-Camden and Washington College, which we lost both. But the Washington game was a major improvement from our first game against Rutgers. The next day we played Gwynedd Mercy and won and Desales and lost. Even though we had 3 losses, we were able to learn and progress from them and it showed through every game we played next. Being able to go through these experiences together has brought everyone on the team closer together. We were also able to bond outside of the tournament like in the van ride to there and back, staying overnight at the hotel room, and grabbing something to eat. We were able to get to know each other outside volleyball.
There are a lot of different types of personalities on my team, from shy and soft spoken to loud and aggressive, but we are all brought together by this one common interest, volleyball. During this trip, I was able to learn who the jokesters were, what people’s food preferences are, and who eats a lot or a little. My teammates were also able to learn a little bit about me. I became closer with people I didn’t expect.
Like volleyball, the people on our block were put together for something that we have in common, whether that is the level of classes, or other reasons. From my first few days at Baruch, I have definitely witnessed a change, from people expressing their opinions on not being able to make friends outside of our block to people starting to get more comfortable with each other, some relationships stronger than others. We are experiencing what I believe is why we were put into these blocks in the first place to make these connections and bonds with others that we would not gotten to know if it were not for these blocks.