Malayali Society: President

I still remember the second week of uni. It was my first time in a new country and a completely new environment. Every day, I went to as many events as I could, leaving most of them with a handful of superficial conversations and the exhausting feeling of socializing until I physically couldn’t fake another laugh.

On October 2nd, I walked into what I assumed would be another one of those events: the Malayalee Society’s Meet & Greet. I came in ready to repeat the same routine, awkwardly joining whatever group happened to be closest to the door. About ten minutes in, a clearly older and very confident guy in a black hoodie came up and greeted me. It was the society’s president.

What followed was nothing extraordinary. It was a simple dap-up and a short conversation. But it was the easiest, most natural interaction I’d had in weeks. After speaking with me, he moved around the room doing the same with others who had that same “two-weeks-into-uni” look of uncertainty.

It was such a small, effortless thing, yet it broke the cycle of empty networking that had defined those early weeks. Because of that moment, I stayed, spoke to more people, and met friends I still have today. I left that meet-and-greet feeling genuinely optimistic about Mallu Soc and about my year at UCL as a whole.

That is why I want to be President: to be the person who turns a room of strangers into the moment someone finally feels like they belong.

I will make sure that every event is live and I’ll host every afters at my house next year.