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Tessa Pesicka / Her Campus
CU Boulder | Culture

Collective Effervescence

Serenity Sisneros Student Contributor, University of Colorado - Boulder
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at CU Boulder chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

Imagine – you are sitting in a well worn-in seat of a stadium, feeling the sticky floor beneath your shoes and a cold draft flowing through the people around you. Your hair and makeup are meticulously styled, your outfit the result of a shared Pinterest board and a different accessory borrowed from each one of your closest girlfriends. As you waitĀ  for the show to begin, your heart feels fluttery, feet restless, and hand dripping with condensation from the overpriced drink it is holding. While discussing the hour before the concert with your friends, you recall the makeup brushes in the sink of the bathroom, hair appliances unplugged and lawless, and the playlist that fueled the soundtrack of the fond memory. The unique feeling of female closeness and understanding, of love so powerful and friendship so strong it easily brings tears to your eyes. That feeling can be described as ā€˜Collective Effervescenceā€™.Ā 

To keep the description short, collective effervescence is the feeling of strong, shared joyfulness and love in a communal experience. I have not experienced this feeling quite as often as I do when surrounded by the people in my life.Ā 

College is a birthplace of collective effervescence. Classes designed to force people to work together allow you to build skills and passion for common purposes that will follow you into professional careers and future endeavors. Building a strong sense of leadership and teamwork in each individual is a pillar of academia that most universities work to implement in each student. It also breeds close friendship and companionship. College is the beginning of your freedom. It is your outlet to finding those people who make you feel the most loved and who choose you for your heart, soul, and passion for life. Most peopleā€™s first experience away from home is college, moving away from the comfort of everything you’ve ever known into the unfamiliarity of everything you have yet to create. What else is there but to strive towards a common goal?Ā 

Love is in so many forms and it never fails to come back just as I think it’s leaving. Romantic love is not the only form that exists, and there is such power in feeling collective warmth and affection. There is something so special surrounding the feeling of being in a room full of your favorite people, all working towards a common goal, and realizing that you’ve built a family without even noticing. The girl who went through the awkward high school years right by your side, your favorite coworkers, the first real friend you made in college, and the girl that you see just a few times a year and somehow feel like she never left.Ā 

The next time you are with all your friends, working on something mundane or the most exciting thing in the world, take a good look around and really let yourself feel the love of the people around you. Take in the sights, go to the concerts, and say how you feel, always. Now that you know what it is, put yourself in positions that will allow you to experience the greatness that is collective effervescence.Ā 

Serenity Sisneros

CU Boulder '28

Serenity Sisneros is currently a sophomore at the University of Colorado Boulder studying Media Production and minoring in Classics. She hopes to build a career as a media/video editor and plans to gain a position working at a post-production company following the completion of her undergraduate degree.

As a first year writer with CU's Her Campus chapter, she looks forward to branching out, meeting new people, and contributing to a thriving, creative community of likeminded writers. Originally from Longmont, Colorado, she feels at home in the Boulder atmosphere and flourishes in the fresh air, mountains, and altitude.

Outside of Her Campus, Serenity works at the University of Coloradoā€™s production equipment checkout centers for the College of Communication, Media, Design, and Information. There, she overlooks, checks out, and manages the audio/visual equipment for the college. She also works for CU Boulderā€™s Anthropology department, where she assists with the data analytics and input of 19th century Census records for greater graduate student studies. Outside of work and class, she enjoys writing, painting, and spending time with friends and family both inside and outside of CU Boulder.