My #GetInvolved Experience - Lucaas Secrist '20
June 18, 2019 | 2:48 PM
Lucaas Secrist '20, Business Administration Major
It’s been said, “You don't know what path you'll take until you are already on it.” I guess that's been pretty true for me during these past three years at MacMurray.
I remember being approached to apply for the Resident Assistant position towards the end of my freshman year. At the time, the RA hiring process was very different from what it is now. I thought I wasn't qualified enough for the position and I wouldn’t be able to do it anyway. I was already president of the Business Club, a club promoting business education and literacy among all students on campus, where I led an intense fundraising campaign, planned and implemented a field trip to St. Louis, and began a project that took way too long to finish. I didn't think I could do that job, let alone take on all of the responsibilities of a Resident Assistant.
That changed when the RA that was supposed to be on the first floor of Norris House unexpectedly left school. Since that was the floor my friends and I decided to live on, I thought long and hard about applying for the position and decided to take a leap of faith. I figured I was already living in Norris, so I might as well get paid for it, too. To my surprise, the very next day I received a call from Student Life. It was finals week and summer was just around the corner, so I assumed they were in a bit of a time crunch.
I remember slowly walking into John Grana's office, director of residence life at the time, and sheepishly knocking on the door. He stood up and told me to come in and shook my hand, but he never sat down, so I thought, "I guess we’re standing the whole time.” He began asking me a series of questions about my résumé and my experiences on campus, to which I responded with pretty normal answers. Then his face grew stern and his tone dropped to pure seriousness. He asked me if I could REALLY do the job, and wondered if I would have enough time to be an RA while still taking on the roles as president of the Business Club and vice president of the Campus Activities Board. I said to myself, "Well, I can't get any busier. So, yes, I can do it."
Flash forward to my junior year and I couldn’t have been more wrong in my life. But, you might not know what path you’re going to take until you’re already on it. So far the roads I’ve taken while at MacMurray have put me on a pretty good path. In the last three years here I’ve been able to take advantage of so many opportunities by pushing myself to #getinvolved with my peers and putting myself out there. In return, I’ve developed so many new skills and have learned more about myself and my capabilities than I ever knew!
