I absolutely dreaded every Tuesday night of spring quarter. I had class from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the last thing I wanted to do was sit on the hardwood floor of Chumash Auditorium for another three hours, which always made me miss Pint Night.
I would think to myself, ‘Why did I do this?’
It was for WOW Leader training. Past orientation leaders had warned me that it was intense, but I still didn’t anticipate the sheer loathing I would feel for the whole process. I even considered quitting halfway through when one of my friends did.
People kept telling me, “It’ll all be worth it once you get your Wowies.” I didn’t believe them. Regardless, I stuck through it until the very end, found a Co (co-leader) and graduated from training.
My summer was full of nervous anticipation of the day that I would be responsible for an entire group of people’s first impression of Cal Poly. I didn’t think I could pull it off; I knew I couldn’t.
When the moment came that I finally met my Wowies, I had a sudden epiphany and realized that it all was worth it. I was so incredibly excited to make a difference in these people’s lives! What I didn’t realize at the time is that they would actually be the ones to change me.
You really have no idea what to expect from your Wowies until you get to know them, and even after that, they will still surprise you. Forty-plus hours of training doesn’t even completely prepare a leader for the week. You get thrown this group of people, all from different backgrounds, hometowns and majors and have to simply roll with the punches.
A WOW Leader’s worst nightmare is getting a group of Wowies that have bad attitudes and a death grip on their “cool card.” Luckily, mine were full of extremely contagious positive vibes. No matter what I threw at them, they were 100 percent ready to take it on at full force. They reminded me of what it was like to be stoked for Cal Poly.
My days started at 6 a.m. and usually didn’t end until after 1 a.m. Most WOW Leaders release their Wowies for the day by 10 p.m., but mine always wanted to hang longer. There is something about the entire atmosphere buzzing around campus during the week that makes everything seem more exhilarating. Everyone is open to new things and meeting new people, which opens an infinite amount of doors along with many windows for opportunity.
People joke about hooking up or partying with your Wowies, but I didn’t see it being about that. It was about hanging out with a group of people for an entire week and truly getting to know them on a real level. Building friendships like this is a rare occurrence. As a leader, you go into the week thinking that the experience is all for your Wowies to make friends, but that isn’t the case. These people became my friends.
I don’t know how it all happened. It must have been somewhere in between screaming at the Iration concert with them in the front row, grabbing our dinner and literally eating it on-the-go while speed walking because we were so late to Smile and Nod or singing Disney songs at the top of our lungs during the entire hike up Bishop Peak, but I fell in love with each and every single one of these incredible humans.
The moment I realized how thankful I was that I was presented with this amazing opportunity was when everything changed for me. My attitude, perspective and purpose were now different for the better. Sitting at the beach bonfire with all the other transfer groups and seeing how, at the week’s end, all the Wowies were friends was something that made me so inexplicably happy. I felt a moment of sadness, because I knew that they no longer needed me to guide them; but it was in this moment of realization that I thought, “Wow. We really did it.” We successfully prepared them to absolutely crush it at Cal Poly and it was one of the most fulfilling things I have ever been able to be a part of.