Have you ever played the game Sweet or Sour? I used to play the game Sweet or Sour, cruising around Steamboat Springs by foot, mountain bike, or free bus, smiling at every community member.
To play Sweet or Sour, you must get out in the community and get over any fears of strangers because the game is as easy as acknowledging everyone. Smile, wave, wink, high five, throw deuces, say hello, or good morning, or good afternoon, or good evening. Whatever it is, positively acknowledge your fellow community members. If you thought that was the fun part, then strap on your helmets and wrist guards, because it is about to get wild. Someone who is "sweet" will acknowledge you back. Someone who is "sour" will either not acknowledge you or acknowledge you crudely. With a gregarious heart, you can get some sugar from even the sourest of neighbors.
Having neighbors in a community is most important to me. I take neighbors to mean anyone you live around and know beyond just a name to name basis. I take a community to mean the following: Many individuals have a sense of belonging to the same whole. Each individual in the community ought to feel some responsibility to the well-being of the whole.
They ought to because their well-being depends partly on the fortune of others through their community’s relationships. The real strength of a community does not lie in the material individuals that compose the community, rather the immaterial relationships that tie one community member to another. Strong communal alliance connects and strengthens the individual ties of the communal web.
For example, a fellow DePauw community member and good buddy, Jarius Pierre-Toussaint, asked me to join the photography club on campus knowing my artistic interests. To share the photo club's achievements with the campus, we plan on publishing photo-accompanied opinion articles. To get to my point, I was seeking out a wider breadth of involvement in the newspaper. I will let you in on a not so secret, secret. Media is by the people, for the people. No stories would run without the help of the community-The DePauw Community.
We all make up the media because whether you write for it, feature in it, or indulge in its journalism, you are an integral part of the staff's day-to-day work in the office. The DePauw has OPEN DOORS and asks members of DePauw's community to fill the paper with the stories our staff and students deserve to read. This is me extending an open invitation to anyone interested in journalism to join our media team. We could always use more writers, editors, photographers, you name it at The DePauw because, ultimately, it is your media. It is always a pleasure to meet new people willing to contribute and share their voice with the campus.
No one is going to hurt my feelings by not joining the newspaper, but if you want to meet people another way, then try the game Sweet and Sour around campus. I still meet new people all the time even on our campus of 2,500 people. If you are like me and have trouble with names, do not fret because it happens to the best of us. Meet someone new. Ask their name. Forget their name. Ask their name again. Get their name almost right. Get their name right. Like my good buddy, Kevin Killeen says, "There is no sweeter sound than the sound of someone calling your name." You will not hurt anyone's feelings trying to learn their name and a thing or two about them, but you will further unify DePauw's community.