By Justine Seo ’19, Staff Writer

One of the various wonderful features of NA is the loads of clubs and sports teams you can join.  Within these groups, friendships are made, memories are created, and an everlasting bond is established.  I’ve heard the Cross Country team being called a “cult” on numerous occasions.  Even within mandatory activities, bonds are formed; students communally complain about last night’s homework so unfairly posted at 8 p.m. on Canvas, or mention a funny occurrence in class—that’s how humans work.  Perhaps a possible downside to the way humans work is that once they are involved in such a club or group or gathering of any sort is that they tend to burrow themselves into that one thing and become less open to other things, because they also love sticking with activities they are comfortable with.

In the summer when I was going into fourth grade, I went to a Marine Biology camp for grades K-8.  At the end of the day, there were multiple choices as to what you could do: I signed up for arts and crafts.  I found out later that all the cool girls (by cool, I mean fifth graders) had signed up for frisbee.  Devastated by this, I tried to talk to these girls whenever possible outside of our chosen activities.  One time, they were talking in a huddle, a very exclusive, tightly knit group which I had somehow managed to squeeze myself into, and one of them mentioned the word “carrot” before looking around and making all four other people in the group laugh.  I didn’t get it.  What was so hilarious about carrots? They don’t even have that amusing of a color or shape.  As far as vegetables go, I would say artichokes are much more humorous.  Despite this, I laughed along until one of the girls called me out and asked why I thought it was funny.

“Funny?” I asked, kicking my light-up sneakers into the ground. “I just– carrots are funny!”

The rest of the girls, who seemed oblivious to my being in the huddle before that moment, stared at me until one of them blurted out that it was an “inside joke” and that I wouldn’t get it anyway.

I got the message.  I wasn’t a part of their disc-throwing clique of vegetable comedians and was not

welcome, or at least it seemed that way.

As a new student at NA, I don’t feel excluded, but there are still things I have no clue about.  I feel like an

M&M in a bowl of Skittles…close to feeling normal, but not quite there yet. While my experience at this school has not been very similar to the instance at summer camp, I was still apprehensive about whether I could fit into a group of people.  I wanted to find a club or group that I could truly be a part of.  One of the first clubs I visited was French Club—I was so nervous that it would be a tight group of kids that were fluent in French, and being the only freshman at the first meeting didn’t really help me out.  Not so.  At first I felt oddly singled out as the youngest, but at the end of the meeting it was clear that everyone was open to new people.  If you have the same interests as other people, it’s not the hardest thing in the world to join a club or sport.   As Magnolia Wang ‘19 commented on her own experience joining Asian Diversity Club: “I am proud of my Asian culture, and I had no problem expressing myself in the club. People in clubs care about you and will help you engage in activities and feel welcome.”

To all you newbies out there, or just people who want to try something new: it might take time to feel truly integrated among a group of people who share the same interest as you.  No one is being intentionally exclusive.  It might seem that way—I’ve passed groups in the hall and felt invasive just looking at them, but we are the only ones who can put ourselves into the various activities we want to join. It’s up to every one of us to break the little huddles and join the groups we want to be a part of. Maybe then it’s possible to find out why carrots are so hilarious.