Finding What Unites Us

Corren Mahone: Finding What Unites Us

INSIDE THE STUDENT UNION

By Adriana Nguyen

I find Corren Mahone right where I expected her to be: on the third floor of Florida State’s new student union holding office hours as the Overall Assistant Director of Homecoming Council. She waves at me through the office’s glass-paned wall. I’ve known Corren for a while, having served with her on Council for two years. I, too, have spent many hours in the same seat.

“My favorite part of this place is our little poster wall,” she tells me. The wall in question is the result of over a decade of Homecoming Weeks, chronicling Florida State’s legacy through musical acts, comedians and more.

As we talk, I find myself trying to prod Corren to talk about things other than Homecoming. She laughs each time she begins to bring it up. Like many students at FSU, Corren’s involvement encapsulates so much of her experience as a student—it’s hard not to bring it up when you can.

“It’s nice to look back on everything because I have so many memories of my time at Florida State and my time with Homecoming.”

The entire third floor of the union is home to the beating heart of FSU: its student organizations. There, one can find the Homecoming office in addition to Fraternity and Sorority Life, the Student Government Association and cultural agencies. Our new union is a well-oiled machine of dedicated students hosting meetings, prepping event supplies and making themselves otherwise available for anything else that might come up.

“When I first started at FSU, we had no union and it was the height of the pandemic,” Corren says. “I spent a lot of time in my dorm, and it was hard to meet people on campus because there wasn’t a central space that people went to. It’s nice to share excitement for what’s going on again.”

Since 2018, students at Florida State have been without a gathering place. Now that it’s open once more, students have now had to learn one of life’s biggest lessons: how to connect with each other again. For Corren, applying to Homecoming Council is what helped her break out of her shell and meet people.

“I met my best friend a month or two into college. We were involved in very different things, but last year she joined Spirit Force, and it was nice to be able to share that experience.” Corren tells me.

Spirit Force is a group of students associated with Homecoming Council, and joining the organization during the spring of 2021 was Corren’s first foray into the world of student involvement. We’re united in this way: Homecoming was also one of my first involvements at FSU and certainly one of my biggest. Like Corren, I have stories of spending hours in the office, meeting my best friends and finding a sense of belonging within a big campus.

Corren feels as though meeting her best friend helped make FSU feel like home, but like any relationship, it’s one not without disagreements. With both parties involved in the same organizations at different capacities, Corren tells me the two of them often had different views on issues that would come up.

“Even if it was something I couldn’t change, it was important to be there for her and hear her out,” Corren says. “Having those different experiences helped us grow to understand how we operate as friends.”

Being no longer active in the organizations that defined my undergraduate experience, I forget how impactful it was. I still feel defensive when others have critiques for something I dedicated so much of my time to—how t-shirt designs should have looked, what rides we should’ve had at festivals. When I see dedicated, passionate students spending countless hours in small offices, I wonder whether it’s healthy to identify so closely with what is ultimately a faceless organization.

Much of my last semester has been filled with reflection, and I discover part of me—my sense of self—got lost in the buzz of Homecoming Weeks, late night meetings and coffee runs. But, speaking with Corren, I’m reminded of another reason why we join these organizations: to find connection. This act of sharing a feeling is integral to our experiences as students and, more broadly, as humans in the world.

Corren likens connection to meeting a stranger at a concert—the moment you realize even if you know nothing about the person next to you, you both love the artist or the music. No matter where you come from, sharing something with a person makes you feel closer to them. These moments are ultimately what unite us to a larger sense of belonging in the world.

I ask Corren if she can sum it all up, and she thinks for a moment before telling me: “Connection is being able to share a feeling with somebody.”

Sitting inside the Homecoming office with Corren, I remember moments the two of us have shared: packing up merchandise, hanging posters, talking about homework and relationships and what food we want for lunch. For Corren and hundreds of other students each day, the Union is a reminder that each of us is part of a shared experience of life—it shows us the importance of seeking out connection and finding the space between us.