{"id":457671,"date":"2026-10-06T05:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T05:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/457671\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T05:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T05:06:09","slug":"its-not-you-its-me-the-daily-texan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/457671\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not you, it\u2019s me \u2013 The Daily Texan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"It\u2019s<\/a> <\/p>\n

UT students have one huge red flag: our commitment issues. It can often feel like students are only loyal to two things: our football team and whatever event we heard about 20 minutes ago. Clubs, friend groups and restaurants are constantly swapped out for whatever seems most exciting. With so many options<\/a> competing for students\u2019 attention, committing to one community can feel like a trap instead of a space to grow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Austin\u2019s abundance is one of its greatest strengths, making it one of the best cities<\/a> to live in as a young adult, but it makes us terrible at committing to plans and people. College students are constantly told to try everything<\/a>. Join a club, go to a concert, meet new people, attend coffee chats \u2014 and that advice is reasonable. Especially in a new city, trying everything is a good way to find your community. But this leaves us with a population of students who are too good at leaving.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think (having so many options) pulls students in so many different directions where they feel so overwhelmed,\u201d said Dhanush Kondapalli, a neuroscience and Plan II senior and secretary general for Central Texas Model United Nations. \u201c(Sometimes they can) feel like even if it is a club they\u2019re really passionate about, they don\u2019t feel like they have the time to dedicate to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem isn\u2019t that students are simply too busy; it\u2019s that we\u2019ve normalized treating every commitment like it\u2019s temporary<\/a>. There\u2019s always another organization meeting if you miss one, another party if you don\u2019t go out one night and a bounty of info sessions during org recruitment season.<\/p>\n

What students are missing is the sense of community that comes from committing to something. Dedicating time to an organization can help you build field-specific skills you wouldn\u2019t otherwise get the chance to develop and find like-minded individuals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, our retention rate is very high because, a lot of times, people come in because they want to grow,\u201d said Kapil Oswal, business senior and operations lead for Longhorn Racing. \u201cThey know what skills they want to grow, and I think they learn a lot that (is) not necessarily tangible from their classes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

When students feel invested in an organization and community, they have a reason to keep showing up. Community doesn\u2019t happen at the first meeting; it happens when you consistently show up and keep your commitments. At the end of the day, instead of trying to blend in with the crowd and overwhelm yourself by attending a huge influx of events, settling on a couple of commitments can help you build a real community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you find people (in an org) that you really resonate with, (and) find yourself connecting with, (and) you enjoy the cause that they enjoy, then I think it\u2019s a good reason to stay in it,\u201d Kondapalli said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Austin will always have another organization or event you can attend, but the benefits of committing outweigh the assortment of experiences. Don\u2019t act like a bad friend and ghost your commitments; it\u2019s time to start showing up and get rid of our commitment issues.<\/p>\n

Sengupta is an international relations and global studies and Plan II sophomore from Leander, Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UT students have one huge red flag: our commitment issues. It can often feel like students are only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-457671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}