Club/Association: spice of my PhD life

College students participate in a variety of associations to enrich their lives, to construct their social network and to get some experience of leadership. As a Ph.D. student, especially a Ph.D. in USA, being members (or leaders) of these associations is a luxury which undergraduate can afford: we are supposed to concentrate more on our research. For some non-hobby-oriented associations, like graduate student association, involvement means responsibility, effort and time. Therefore, I prefer to join some hobby clubs for the purpose of knowing more people and filling up some of my empty time, because I've spent multiple years to train my leadership well.

My hobbies are pretty broad, so I joined several clubs here: Photography and traveling club, dance club and tennis club. Photography is sort of a social contagion. Some people who I am familiar with are really good at photography (e.g. Professor Dongwon Lee). People just cannot help marveling at those so-much fantastic pictures and then wish to do the same thing by themselves some day. I am among of them, so I start off learning photography. However, professional cameras are expensive, not to say high-quality lenses. Dance is an elegant exercise, or should I say, art. It makes me perfectly relax and step out of any upset and annoyance. Dance is also an ambassador of getting people known with each other in some social activities. Tennis is an excellent outdoor exercise: not too intensive as soccer and not too dangerous as football. It emphasizes a balance of body strength and skills.  I always believe a good body is the key to survive the Ph.D. (also known as Permanent Head Damage)

As I can manage the time better and better, I hope I am able to get out of the box and to participate some non-Chinese based associations or clubs. After all, I cannot know well about American culture and style without getting along with Americans.