Many Holy Cross students joke about how they erase a large mass of emails before reading them just to keep their inbox somewhat organized. However, Holy Cross students are more likely to be interested by a great majority of emails, especially in the first few weeks on campus. Sure, there is the type of email that simply never pertains to your particular interests, but from personal experience, checking my email has been one of the most important parts of my day.
For Sophomores, the emails often times will contain new information. Maybe they had never heard of a club or activity as a freshman on campus, but now feel excited to join right away. The more common sentiment among sophomores is that deadlines for a litany of exciting programs are quickly approaching, be it the Honors Program, SPUD, or the widely popular study abroad program.
While freshman students should surely be thinking of these programs and opportunities, the sophomore class is in the midst of completing the paper work and thinking long and hard about what programs are right for them. The freshman class is finding out that every hour that passes, brings with it at least five emails. Within those emails is an almost endless list of programs, clubs, activities to be a part of, and resources to make use of. There seems to be a few main mantras on campus. One being that it is best to take part in a lot of things freshman year in order to explore interests, both old and new. Others say that freshman year is a time to get into a routine and that joining extracurricular activities brings unnecessary stress. While there may be merits to both schools of thoughts in isolated cases, I have found that common sense and introspection lead to a healthy balance.
More specifically, a freshman student may find out quickly that four classes do take a lot of time out of the day. One may also find that their roommate is their new best friend and love the hour or so before bed when the day is discussed. This means that there may not be enough time in the day to accommodate a laundry list of extracurriculars. So, a simple way to go about getting involved and attending the information sessions sent via email is to think critically about what one really wants to be involved with, and how many hours of expendable time they have in a given day. If this means a freshman student can join one extracurricular, then that is perfectly fine! Many Holy Cross students are very busy. But a more defining feature of a Crusader is how meaningfully they are engaged in their activities, whether they belong to one extracurricular or many.
