ALFB

For a girl who has never had any trouble getting involved, college was a different story for me. I was intimidated by some of the clubs here at CMU. Many of them have been around for a while now and have built up their members, and I was unsure of how welcoming they would be. The idea of not fitting in scared me, so I didn’t try very hard to find an registered student organization (RSO) that really worked for me. Since I was a part of LAS, I felt like I already had my own little community involvement and I didn’t need to find anything more than that.

I had thought I was happy, because I was comfortable. Without having an involvement I felt like I was just doing the same thing every day. Just going through the motions. After a while I started feeling stuck. I went to the Office of Student Activities and Involvement and met one on one with someone who helped me find something I was interested in. The woman helping me explained how OrgSync — a website used by all of the RSO’s on campus — worked and how to maneuver through it. All of the clubs are listed in alphabetical order, all 200+ of them. One of the first ones I came across was a club called “A Letter for Better”. I didn’t have to look very far to find my perfect fit. I attending my first meeting and knew immediately that this was going to my my niche. ALFB is a club of students who gets together and writes letters to strangers. I promise it’s not as creepy as it sounds. Receiving a hand-written letter from someone brings a special kind of joy. All of us in this club understand that, and we want to bring that joy to everyone. When we write these letters, we don’t have someone specific in mind, so they can be sent to anyone.

I love everything about this club. I love the atmosphere, the people, and most of all I love how welcomed I felt. Not many people attend ALFB meetings, and I hope to change that next year. I want to get more people talking about A Letter for Better, and more people involved in our meetings. I can see this RSO growing bigger. I was just recently elected to the Treasurer position on the e-board, and I couldn’t be more excited. I can’t wait to see what 2017-2018 has in store for ALFB, I know its going to be great.