This was in Manila, Philippines. The year was 1993. It was the first day of my college life when I saw the poster in the booth of Midshipmen (that’s what we call college level Reserves) Naval Officership that said “Scholarship” as one of their benefits. As a person who always wanted to help my parents financially, I joined the organization eventhough “being a soldier” is not my strongest point. The “scholarship” was my main motivation.

We were thirteen in the batch. After grueling months of rigorous training, only six made it to the Corpse and I was ranked 5th. I knew I was the lousiest in the group as it is not my cup of tea. As a result, I took a lot of criticism from upperclassmen who I thought didn’t like me from the very start. The first few days of being an officer, I learned that the scholarship was not an automatic benefit. You have to prove you’re worth it by also excelling in class. And I didn’t think that way before I joined the Corpse. I never thought there was a catch.

Needless to say, I didn’t enjoy my time as a Midshipmen Naval Officer. There were certain philosophies I didn’t agree with and I had a lot of doubts. I started avoiding the Corpse by walking away from places around the campus I knew they’d be hanging out. But they had ways of tracking you down so I started cutting classes, and worst, it came to the point where I was not attending the classes anymore. My academics suffered tremendously. My self-esteem was at the rock bottom and I was extremely lonely. My ultimate objective of getting a scholarship, gone. So I decided to quit.

Few months later, I discovered the Chess club. Now chess is the game I knew I would excel in. I’ve been playing it since I was six, and when I was growing up, I played with people even older than I was in the streets. So I joined and made it to the chess team, and guess what? They provided scholarship for the players! I was happy again because I found what I wanted without even looking for it. Or should I say, it found me?

My alma mater – DLSU-CSB (Manila, Philippines)

So I’d like to share personal insights that I learned from this experience. Below are five quick pointers on or before joining school organizations. Remember, these are based on personal experience, so use them or not, it’s totally up to you:

• Join a group with activities you love doing – If you’re a techie person, Computer Club is for you. Don’t join the Writers’ Guild if you want to learn how to write. They want people who are ready to contribute.

• Academics should be your number one priority – You are in school to learn, keep that in mind. The only way to stay in a club you like is to stay in the school and do good. That is why school clubs and organizations are called extra-curricular activities.

• Ask questions – Clubs are friendliest during recruitment process. So take advantage and ask questions you need answers to without being annoying. It’s your chance to know the pre-requisites if you want to avail of the club benefits before reaching the point of no return. Be cautious of clubs that offer too-good-to-be-true gimmicks.

• Do Some Random Survey. Ask family members and close friends what they think about of you joining a specific group. Did they join clubs before? How did it affect their lives? Gather as much information. You’ll be amazed by the things you’ll learn from others’ history.

• Invite friends to join you. Imagine this: you got accepted in a club, and a general meeting was held. You found out you knew nobody and you sat in one corner, too shy to speak out. You’re beginning to feel uncomfortable and now having second-thoughts if you made the right decision. Before that happens, invite friends to join you in the club. You don’t want to be in an island alone. That was why I dropped a famous computer club in our school and favored to stay in Students Assistant Organization where we have a family-like atmosphere. As a bonus, we’re getting paid doing the job we love.

If you have pointers and tips you want to share, feel free to post them here at the comment box.