Growing up, I was always extremely independent and had no fear of going off into the world on my own. However, as the realization that I would soon have to move away from the town and house that I had lived in my whole life and away from my family I slowly started to sense fear creeping into me. I was scared of leaving my two best friends; both of which I had been friends with since I was a little kid. My home, Jonesville, had always been a place I never thought I would miss, but the thought of leaving my little town scared me.
Despite the fear, I packed up and moved 2 hours away to a town that my 3 older siblings had experienced before me with optimistic thoughts about what I was going to face. I wanted these next years to be some of the best memories of my life. I wanted to make lifelong friends. I wanted to know what all my siblings were talking about when they said that CMU is the best college in the world. I realized within a week that all of these things I wanted were going to happen and that my life at CMU was going to exceed my expectations.
My first week at CMU was filled with speakers and team building exercises. Leadership Safari is a program put on by CMU that is intended for incoming freshman and transfer students who want to make new connections at Central and build their leadership skills. Everyone attending Leadership Safari is placed into small groups that are named after animals (mine being Team Bear) and have a team leader. Throughout the week you and your team go to motivational speakers, slam poets, and comedians. You also spend a lot of time working on team building with your team, and you are able to really get to know your fellow team members through discussions after each event.
The part of safari that had the largest impact on me was the speaker we had the last night. When I was younger I would watch The Buried Life on MTV. The Buried Life was a show featuring a group of guys who spent their lives checking off tasks from their bucket list. So, when I heard that Ben Nemtin, one of the guys from the Buried Life, was going to be our speaker, I was super excited. To some it may seem cliche to have someone sitting in front of you telling you to live your dreams, but the message that was being given was a lot deeper than just “whatever you want to do, do it.” Sure, following your dream was a large part of the message, but I think that the most important message in following your dreams is to make sure you don’t let fear control your life and keep you from your dreams or any other great opportunity. Pushing past your fear can lead you to not only change your life but also inspire others. While he was speaking, Ben put a microphone in the middle of McGuirk Arena for people to come down and tell all of safari what they wanted to do before they died. Naturally, a bundle of people came down to the microphone and shared, but there was one girl who inspired me the most. She came down to the microphone and said that before she died she wanted to sing in front of a full stadium. And then she did. She sang in front of almost 2000 people at safari. You could tell she was nervous at first, but as the song she was singing continued she grew more confident. Everyone has a dream, and it is easy for everyone to say what they want to do before they die because no one thinks they are going to die tomorrow. Everyone thinks that living their dream is something that is far in the future that they don’t have to worry about today. However, this girl had the guts to live her dream that day. As I listened to her I felt goosebumps growing on my arms because in that moment I was so inspired to live my dreams too.
As someone who was filled with fear before I moved in, I can honestly say pushing through the fear of a whole new world and life has allowed me to make a new home out of Central Michigan University.
Ashleigh Varney 