Take time to appreciate yourself
COMMENTARY
Melissa Christensen is a junior news-editorial major from Grand Island, Neb.

Recently, I received the best compliment of my life. It came from a 14-year-old girl who I’ve known for about four years. She told me I was her role model.

For a summer, I served as a caretaker for Danielle, then 10, and her younger brother, Kevin, then seven. I did the typical babysitting duties — cooking macaroni and cheese for lunch, supervising them at the community pool, settling fights when feelings got hurt. As the summer progressed, the family and I evolved past an employer/employee relationship and became friends. More than friends, really, they were like my surrogate family, a stand-in for those in my home state of Nebraska that I rarely saw after moving to Texas.

After my employed summer, the family and I made an effort to see each other on an informal basis. They were some of the first people I called when I became engaged. They were also a bank of understanding when the engagement was called off. They were my biggest cheerleaders as I earned editorial positions at the Skiff, and they were also my support system as I sunk into depression and had to withdraw from TCU. Most recently, they awarded my efforts to return to school with a pizza party, which is where Danielle told
me how much my friendship means to her.

To sum it up, Danielle saw me at my high points and my low points. She saw me when I was an overachiever extraordinaire and when I was barely able to force myself out of bed. She saw that I was infallible, and still, she decided that I was a hero to her. The reason I’m telling you all this is to remind you that often times, it’s an unlabeled, informal affiliation in our lives that reaps the most rewards.

So often at TCU, we’re inundated with the need to be involved in co-curricular activities. Fliers line the sidewalks and our e-mail inboxes are crowded with announcements. Even the decision to refer to these activities as “co” rather than “extra” implies their necessity to the TCU experience.

And, yes, involvement in co-curricular activities is important in building leadership skills, establishing time management abilities and fostering new friendships. But we should also remember that over-committing ourselves to a group for the sake of resume building can make that experience less worthwhile.

It’s important to take time simply to appreciate who you are, with or without a campus organization’s name behind you. The people who mean the most to you could care less whether you were the president of a club or a member of 20 different groups. All they care about is that you’re healthy and happy.

Collegiate life should be more than just a blur of meetings and activities. Being involved does have it benefits, but as Danielle, showed me, just being who you are is the greatest achievement you’ll attain.