Belonging

Hey Guys,

Tonight Trinity Western University won the CIS National Championship. We have the best volleyball team in the country (Canada) so take that anyone who goes to any other university! It was a great game we absolutely destroyed Brandon in three straight sets. There is very few experiences that I have found yet that then watching your team win and be the best in the country. On that though, I started to think what does it mean to actually be apart of something and what impact does that have on us and a community.

It was a amazing thing for our community, we all came together under the Spartan name. It is something we always do. When there was the female soccer nationals we all came together when they had a chance to win. We did it when the guys soccer nationals were here even when they lost. Now we have done it again to support our men's volleyball. They did not disappoint in anyway which was great! It was great to see people from all sides of our community come out. People who normally would never EVER come to a Spartan game came on out. I am kind of sorry for the people that did not get to experience it for themselves!

Something I noticed though was the amount people felt like they were apart of something great. I see why now people get so passionate about sports team. It makes sense it gives you this sense of being apart of something and accomplishment. Today I feel like I won even though I probably did nothing except lose my voice. Maybe I am over thinking this all but today I 'technically' accomplished nothing. I had a great time, had a great experience but did not accomplish a task, a goal or anything.

I am not saying do not support teams or your school because its meaningless, no I am not saying that. I am saying though I can see how it is pretty easy to get caught up in something where you feel like you belong. When I was in grade 10-11 I got addicted to World of Warcraft because that was a place that I felt like I belong, that I had a purpose and something to accomplish. It is easy to look back at that time and see wow that was stupid but during that it seemed normal. When going through depression I wanted to cling on to anything to feel apart of something. For me I would sit in TWUSA all day and try an feel apart of something or feel like I was making a difference! Turns out I began just sitting around trying to be apart of something.

I still think it is a great thing to be involved and belong to a lot of different clubs, organizations, sports teams and faith groups. However there is always a air of caution that is needed that it does not overtake your life and become 'your' life. How often do we see people get consumed by their work? or consumed by their hobby? or consumed by something that makes them feel wanted and a place they feel important? It happens a lot, so do not let it happen to you :)

Goodbye for now,

Christian Sawka