Meet "new" people today

How are things at school?" your folks ask, wanting to know whether you are doing OK away from home. There are many things you can tell them about your new life on campus. Some of the most exciting news is about your new friends, interesting and impressive people you've met. Many events on campus, including regular classes, are not just the places where you gain new knowledge or entertainment. They are the places where you can meet new people, inspired and inspiring, building new friendships, a sense of community.\nBut what is it to meet new people on campus? Why is it so important to meet new people?\n"You can meet a lot of new people here. It's fun," said a female student who participated in one of the intramural sport events I watched. Many students who participate in intramural sports see meeting with new people and having a good time as the major reason for their participation. \n"More than a game, intramural sports lets you build friendships," according to the IU intramural sports Web site. Today, my question deals with "meeting with new people" via intramural sports.\nOne main attraction of intramural sports is that they are open to anybody who wants to participate, regardless of his or her experience. Many teams at various levels are registered and students at various athletic and experiential levels play the games together, either as teammates or opponents. Some players already know each other, but for others it might be the first time they meet. This conglomeration develops something interesting in the field that makes you smile.\nIn a softball game perhaps, a novice player who has a hard time even hitting a slow ball eventually will hit it awkwardly and start running toward first base. That ball moves so slowly that the runner reaches first base as a novice infielder also slowly yet successfully catches it. Smiles of satisfaction appear on both players and gentle applause from the crowd echoes. It was a mild yet sincere moment of good time, as if even the ball cooperated by becoming slow and gentle. \nWhen you see a play like that, it doesn't matter what kind of person the player has been, male or female, outgoing or shy, trendy or not. As you accept that play unconditionally, you accept that player unconditionally that moment. If that player was somebody you did not like before, it is a moment of reconciliation. If that person belongs to a so-called "different group," it is the time when the stereotype is broken. It is also the time when your stereotype of yourself can be broken. At this moment, you meet "new" people, "new" people in the others ... and yourself. Friendship begins to develop. \n"Meeting new people" usually means that you get acquainted with somebody who you literally have not met before. People expect from those people something new, something interesting and inspiring that they, as well as their old friends, don't have. But if we expect something new and different only from our strangers and ignore the potential for "new" and "different" in ourselves, our encounter with the others becomes infatuation. It always ends with misunderstanding. \nOur interpersonal as well as intercultural diversity becomes meaningful only when our intra-personal as well as intra-cultural diversity is really recognized. Without that recognition, our differences cannot go beyond the mere object of tolerance. When one discovers a "stranger" in him or herself, one begins to understand the others -- interpersonal difference.\n"Batter up!" Let's play ball. Let's meet "new" people. That's really fun.