Monmouth University (MU): a school with as much history as a 90-year-old living down the block. This school leads young adults down the path of greater education and a chance to become more exceptional than they can possibly imagine. For a school so close to the beach, and even closer to places of New Jersey royalty, it’s hard to think of what one can love about this school, and what not to love as well. As the old saying goes, “All that glitters is not gold,” and the same can be said for old MU. For everything there is for me to love about this place, there are also some things I hate as well.
For starters, something I love about this University is the chance for my path to branch out, so options of what I want to do in life are limitless. Not only does this school provide me with various fields of study, but it also has departments filled with teachers that are dead-set on helping you with whatever you need to make your work valid and clear. The services here are helpful with providing you with what you need to make sure you are successful in classes, whether it’s the writing services helping you with a paper or the counseling services to help you through a rough day.
The clubs and fun activities offered around campus allow the students to cut loose, so to speak, and take part in an activity that is something other than school or studying. Being part of a production at Woods Theater, playing Dungeons & Dragons with other fair adventurers, or even partaking in a fitness class at the OceanFirst Bank Center all give students a break from school to ease their mindset. Clubs like “The Outlook” and HawkTV even give students the opportunity to get a feel for things like communication and journalism if they have that spark in them to try.
With all of these good-natured forms of activity though, the one thing that bums me about this school is the distance between some students. There are some students, in my view, who don’t have the courage, or maybe the patience, to step out of their circles and try something different, meet someone new, and try to be friendly with someone that they see as different. Even when it comes to Greek Life, those groups can make some socially anxious people, like myself, want to curl up and wish it wasn’t real.
In closing, this school has opened my eyes in ways that I never thought they could, made me experience new things such as other cultures and new voices from the music majors, and even joined clubs I didn’t have an interest in a few years back. If only I could find people who were more open than shut-in, those who had the willpower or courage to break out of their ruts and routines and try something new, and those wanting to take a chance to be something more, then maybe this school could be greater to others. Out of all the moments I have had here, the one thing I love about Monmouth is the chance it gave me to stand out and be more: more courageous, more outgoing, more myself!
