The first few weeks of school was a whirlwind of new people, places, classes, and professors. I was always doing something and felt my hobby (music and performing) slipping away from me. Since I did not have enough structure to manage it myself, I thought the next best thing was to join a club! The best place to do this was obviously at OSU‘s Involvement Fair. I enjoyed every second of it because it was just a small slice of all the opportunities at OSU. Although I lost the friend I came there with while navigating through the sea of people and booths, I found a very interesting club – Buckeye Blackout. Their booth had pictures of concerts and bands performing live at OSU, so I signed up and took a flyer about their first meeting without a second thought.
Before their first meeting, I was already having second thoughts because I truly did not understand anything about the club nor their mission. In addition, I did not even know if I had time to dedicate to any club. Either way, I fought my doubts and went anyways and that was the best decision I could have made.
One of the greatest things about the meeting is that I found a place with a low stress environment where people can have fun. Buckeye Blackout also combines two things I love: music and sustainability. Every semester they host a concert here at OSU where they promote OSU artists and ways to have a more sustainable campus. The club is almost too good to be true and I was so excited to get started that I signed up for financial and band council. Basically, I try to find different ways to fund the club so we can pay the artists and other expenses while also picking and choosing those artists. I would like to see Buckeye Blackout grow a lot in the future. Maybe to the point where we have two shows in the spring and winter semesters. I would even like to see them partner with other sustainability clubs so we can have a bolder sustainability mission. Also, the partnership will possibly add to the missions stability. I cannot wait for the future of Buckeye Blackout and its involvement within the university.
Loving this club has made time management a lot easier because I actually want to work ahead so I can make every meeting. This not only helps my attendance and involvement with the club, but it also keeps me on top of my classes. Without Buckeye Blackout I probably would not have as much of a drive to get my assignments finished. Plus, the club meetings are only an hour long, and that is definitely a reasonable amount of time I can spare in my week. Buckeye Blackout is not a very strict club, so if I ever needed that hour to study for a midterm, they would be extremely understanding. I’m so glad I was able to find this club. It is allowing me to maintain my hobby and share it with others.
