OPINION: I honestly couldn’t tell you any of the University of Maine’s athletic teams’ records this season without opening Google. I can, however, tell you that homecoming was a pretty good excuse to get out of the house. You don’t have to love football, feel particularly attached to campus or even know what’s going on to enjoy being part of something. College is one of the few times in your life when you get to be aggressively involved in things that you have no idea about. We should take advantage of that.
We’re surrounded by opportunities to try things, meet people and become involved in communities we might never have encountered otherwise. Homecoming is a timely example. You can go to a football game without knowing anything about football. You can wear the bookstore hoodie and attend because your friends are going, because you want to get outside or because you have nothing else planned for Saturday afternoon. None of these reasons need skills or competency. A lot of us forget that we’re allowed to do things just because they sound fun or because we want to be involved.
A lot of us don’t want to join a club unless we know we’ll fit in, try a sport unless we’re reasonably athletic or pick up a hobby unless we’re confident we’ll stick with it or immediately be proficient. Nobody wants to be the person who doesn’t know the rules, asks the obvious question or looks completely lost. We’d rather sit something out than risk being bad at it. I think that’s a shame.
College is competitive enough. It’s exhausting to compare grades, apply for internships, collect leadership positions and try to figure out what we’re supposed to do with the rest of our lives. Be bad at something! Be unapologetically and unfortunately bad at something! There’s real value in going somewhere without knowing anyone, asking questions you probably should already know the answers to and participating in something without worrying about how you look doing it. Not every new experience needs to go well to be worth having, and not every experience has to be an investment. Sometimes we can try something, discover that it is not for us and move on. Other times, we might find ourselves enjoying something we never would have considered if we had waited until we felt qualified to participate.
Homecoming is a familiar and easy place to start. You can just show up. The same goes for plenty of other things happening on and off campus. There are so many opportunities to participate in things that have nothing to do with your major, career plans or existing interests.
College doesn’t need to be one long exercise in proving we’re capable. We have plenty of time for that after graduation. Bring back being bad at things! You don’t have to impress anyone, keep up with anyone or prove that you’re naturally talented. You can laugh at yourself, ask for help and enjoy being a beginner. Consider showing up even if you’re not sure what you are showing up for. You rarely have to be an expert to be part of something.
