In the weeks leading up to my Junior year, we had NACURH, which was essentially a gathering of all the residential clubs all over the United States from different colleges for a national conference. It was there that I bonded with the new members of the ICRA (Inter-College Residents’ Association) team that I would be working with the rest of the year. This included Bijan, who had a broken leg at the time, who would be instrumental in changing my life forever.
I think I reached the peak of popularity of course in college when I was balancing my friendships with my PAW friends, my ICRA friends, and of course the random people I had met on campus. I was now living for a third time on campus with my Vegan roommate Amul, and we continued to play boardgames, study at Geisel, and hangout with our other friends in various settings.
Through ICRA, we continued to put on fun events on campus, including a trip to Knott’s Berry Farm, a Minute-to-win-it game show, and a Harry Potter week that culminated in a free movie screening of the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 1. As the Vice President of Publicity, I helped organize the office, and promote the club through social media (mostly Facebook) and posters around campus as well as a terrible video produced below. It’s nice because we all got stipends for our participation in the club, some more than others.
My 2nd relationship started at this time, and we bonded over planning ICRA events together, watching movies, and smack-talking other people. It was through this relationship that I became slightly more confident in myself.
At the end of the year, me and my friends threw a mutiny and tried to not re-elect the President of ICRA at the time, who was being a jerk. Running unopposed, he failed to secure enough votes twice to get elected. When the advisor pressured us and told us the club needed a President, people folded so the meeting would end and he eventually he got re-elected. With the friendships I wanted intact (our ICRA clique), we decided not to stay in the club following the end of the school year.
With already enough units, I decided to add “history” as a double major in college, thinking that would it help provide more job security in the future. That summer, I worked at a summer camp at Waigenheim middle school, busing 40 minutes back and forth from UCSD to get there. It was well worth it though, because it was there I would discover my love of teaching, as I taught students to make short movies, like the ones seen below.
