By Vasanth Sridharan

It happens every year. It’s usually hot. There are thousands of people and for most it’s thoroughly uninteresting after freshman year. But Quad Day attracts new crowds every year because they know what the rest of us have forgotten: This school is big and impersonal.

At the University, we seem to fall into our close-knit group of friends and forget about everyone else. We don’t bother getting to know anyone we meet in class or on Tuesday at Murphy’s because there’s little chance that we will ever see them again.

That’s why Registered Student Organizations are really the only organized way to expand our horizons on campus. Through them we can solidify our love of broomball or watch Seinfeld with other people who can recite the entire Keith Hernandez bit.

But more important than the RSOs themselves are the people who join them. If you’re lucky, that organization you sign up for today will be made up of a diverse group of people from all over the world, who you will learn from every time you hang out with them.

Unfortunately, you won’t learn if you don’t goand that is why Quad Day is so important. In one day, you can jump all over the political spectrum and get a taste of every culture in the world. There are hundreds of RSOs, and no one will be able to see them all, but wander around a little bit. Don’t just stick to that nifty map from the center of this section; go to what looks interesting. Don’t go with a schedule or a plan, just go.

Or stay at home with your three friends.

Disclosure: he is a member and a former officer of the Illini Men’s Water Polo Team.

RELATED NEWS: First Quad Day called success from start

RELATED NEWS: Quad Day on the way