By Ifeanyi OnwumahAs an SXU sophomore who had quite a dull and irksome freshman year, I decided to make it my goal to embark on a year-long journey into the social world at Saint Xavier.
Last year, my major and the nature of classes it required took up so much of my time that I had absolutely no social life. I made it my creed that this year was going to be different. Not only do I plan to check out most of the clubs, trips, and student activities the school has to offer, I also plan on attending the different lectures and educational activities the school sponsors. I will attend these programs and share my insight with the rest of the school in order to grasp the attention of students, such as myself, who find it difficult to mingle and manage an active social life. It is only right that I start with something familiar that is also related to my new major, philosophy.
I decided to check out none other than the Philosophy Club meeting. It is expected for non-philosophy oriented students to be turned off by such a group because of the boredom and complexities associated with philosophical texts. I have to say myself that I was expecting the club to be drab but contrary to my expectations, the meeting and the ideas that were put forth were quite refreshing.
My expectations for the club were along the lines of voluminous readings and discussions within the club and countless hours spent on debates of “philosophical nature” but as previously stated that was certainly not the case.
The first and most exciting idea was for an eating contest. Most people would ask what an eating contest has to do with philosophy and the answer is: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! The only link between them is the participants were philosophy professors. The concept was to have an ice cream eating contest amongst these very intelligent people to see which one of them would be the first to have a “brain freeze.” I don’t think there could be anything more hilarious than that! Think about it, philosophers spend all their time thinking and using their brains to decipher out all sorts of issues, only to have their brains frozen by ice cream. How ironic!
Other suggestions were put forth for the club such as: a hiking trip, visits to different museums, composting to help improve the environment, collaborations with other groups on and off campus, attending concerts, a small reading session, etc. I never expected such diversity in events and so many non-philosophical activities, the club even went as far as changing its name from the philosophy club to T.H.A.T. club. What does T.H.A.T. stand for? No one knows yet but it just felt so right and fitting for the club and everyone agreed to adopt the name. I came up with my own meaning for the acronym: The Hierarchy of Asymmetrical Thinking. Crazy, right?
All the craziness that took place only heightened my curiosity and only made me want to check out more students groups and see what exciting things they might be up to. I’m looking forward to exploring this new social path of mine and I’m more than happy to take everybody along with me!
Ifeanyi Onwumah is a sophomore philosophy major from South Holland. He participates in several campus clubs. Consideration for the student bloggers is provided by Saint Xavier University.
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