On Sept. 22, students from all over campus gathered and crowded around the glade for club rush, an event celebrating different clubs. There, groups like volleyball, cheer, and wrestling got to raise money by selling food items, all of which sold out. While others like Spanish, Gay Straight Alliance, and Snowboarding also were fundraising money, they also wanted to encourage others to join their clubs. Yet, the one thing that most students were more focused on was what they could get for lunch.

Clubs are part of just about all high school experiences. Whether they join to make friends, express an interest in something, or volunteer for a community, clubs exist to gather students together for a reason. However, that wasn’t what I saw on Friday.

It’s disappointing to see how many students would come up to a booth and just ask what they were selling. There was almost no asking of what that club was about or showing actual interest. Even if they did, that person would just dismiss the idea of joining for whatever reason. Though some were only there to sell rather than recruit, those who tried were probably disappointed.

So far, the increase of numbers in many clubs have been small throughout the week since club rush. In a school where there is 1500 plus students, there should be more than 15 people going to any club meeting. While it may be because it’s just the first week and people aren’t remembering to go yet, there’s no doubt in my mind that clubs aren’t held as high in regards to students anymore.

In my freshman year, I was so much more excited for club rush to learn about clubs I didn’t know about rather than the food. It was an amazing experience to find out where clubs met and not be the only one who was interested. Sign up lists for certain clubs had three to four pages filled with names of people who wanted to join. That was how I was introduced to most of the people I know to this day. It was back then that it felt like people really cared.

Nowadays most students just want to hang out with their friends during lunch and find clubs to be too much of a hassle to go to. Honestly I can’t totally blame them. With only 30 minute lunches, there’s not much time to do everything a student may want to do with this time. It takes how long to walk across campus, wait in lines at the cafeteria to get food, or use this time to finish up school work.

Though, it never hurts to join at least one club. That’s like one day a week and sometimes it doesn’t even take the whole lunch period. It’s one way to show pride and looks better on college applications than not doing anything. Clubs are wonderful ways to get yourself out there on campus and be involved with your school.