What better way to spend a Sunday in October than reveling in all the possibilities for the fall semester?
Hope, Sara and I made our way today to University College London’s Welcome Fair. On the quad and in surrounding buildings, UCL’s fair hosts more than 300 clubs looking for students to join.
Before we headed over to the Euston area, we stopped at Byron, a hamburger joint, to eat.

And good thinking on our parts: there was a queue around the block to get into the welcome fair. The queue snaking through the quad and student buildings ended up being massive as well.
After signing up for more clubs than I intended (Hope called me an “advertiser’s dream”), we made our way to a food truck doling out free coffee.

The way Sara and I see it is that signing up liberally puts you in the know for all the clubs you’re interested in. Then, as time goes on, you can figure out which club really is the best fit for you. Of course, you will all see what groups I end up sticking with. Fair warning: I signed up for a handful of clubs because they all spoke to different interests and positionalities.
I’m a queer, black individual who loves film, loves music, is minoring in French and loves Harry Potter, is majoring in journalism and could use a little more meditation in her life. With a directory in hand, I’m sure you could figure out everything I signed up for.
I did come into the event with a one-track mind. I told Hope I’d meet her in an hour and cut a Tube-during-rush-hour-brutal path through the fair. But I’m not a one-dimensional or simple person. So, alas, I relented and listened intently to club presidents and group leaders and social captains gush about their passions. I let them infuse me with some of that frank, frenetic enthusiasm.
And with folks like that at the helm, it was hard for me not to feel a glimmer of hope that this could be my most socially and spiritually enriching semester yet.