OSLA to me has been a pivotal part of my university experience during these two short years. Whilst yes, there have been and probably will always be bigger societies such as the Union, which will carry more prestige, none come close to OSLA when it comes to how important it’s been to me.
My time in OSLA started confusingly by attending a Council meeting before I was even a member. Hayden Williams, the society’s dedicated Webmaster for two years, and essentially my college dad if there ever were such a thing at Brookes, invited me down to my first Liquor and Liberalism. Unfortunately for me at the time, I had no idea where to go or what to do. So, Hayden, as ever helpful, told me to come along at the same time as him. Sitting myself down, I waited for drinks to start pouring and elaborate speeches being rung out with reverent belief about proportional representation. Instead, I was asked what my name and position were for the minutes. Never having sat on any sort of committee before, I was slightly confused, thinking that every L&L had to record everyone who came, as if in some sort of Blue Labour fantasy world.
However, my confusion quickly changed as the night went on. Although I couldn’t exactly resonate with the motions, as I didn’t have much to say about the first term of my first year, something about L&L, compared to B&B and P&P, made me want to come back. Perhaps it was the cheap drinks, the somewhat familiar faces such as Hayden and various recognisable BNOC-esque characters, or the lack of both of these from OUCA and OLC. I’d like to say that it was because I found my ideological home, while I do think that was somewhat the case. However, I think the main reason was the approachability of the society. The fact that after my first week I could go and voice my opinion to strangers in an environment that didn’t feel like I was 5ft tall stuck. So, by the time of Will Lawson’s premiership, it was the only political society apart from the Union that I found myself going to.
This was surely picked up on, and before long I’d overheard that the Director of Communications position needed filling. So, a quick chat with Will and Harry Morgan meant I was now a member of committee, something I had now got the idea of. However, I did feel a bit cautious about the workload when my initial volunteering for the role was met with relief from Harry that he no longer needed the social media. This, while not exactly filling me with joy, didn’t dissuade me. Being added to a small committee and being an integral part of it was alluring to me, and the people who made up said committee definitely helped.
As the term moves on as annoyingly fast as it drains you of energy, I was asked if I’d like to continue my role, which I happily said yes to. But it was now the long vac and with this I had little to do. So, when I heard that the Young Liberals Conference was happening in Cambridge just a stone’s throw away from my house, I felt obligated to go. Waking up two hours late didn’t help my initial drive down, with Zagham later recollecting that I’d just appeared halfway through the conference. However, I was happy to be back in this microcosm, especially outside Oxford, where colleges and institutions were both far away, both in the mind and distance. People just seemed like people. We sat down, ate lunch together, made innocuous quote posts using the close friends feature on Instagram, and forced our only Scottish member to sing 500 Miles after Richanne and I convinced them that a karaoke room was a good idea. Which it profoundly was.
Afterwards, I had come to realise that this society had now become something I deeply cared about. Increasingly, it became less about the politics of the society and more about the people who made the events possible. It was a clique, perhaps, but cliques are not necessarily bad; they only carry a negative connotation. The people who surround you shape you and reflect who you are as a person. So, in my own opinion, I think I chose well.
Coming into my second year, I was hopeful that I could do my role and keep plotting along, but that was never in the cards, I don’t think. As always, the longer you stick around, the more senior you become, perhaps not in position but certainly in experience. I found myself slowly doing increasingly more outside my title description: proposing motions, not just discussing them, and being on the bar. Both, while not that demanding, got me a tap on the shoulder.
It was the MT25 AGM, and we had just submitted the financial reports and other policy motions. It was all but finished, and I was recovering from an unrelated crash-out (which is a canonical event that every politically minded student in the Oxford, Politics, and Society Venn diagram must go through). But then, I got that aforementioned tap on the shoulder. It was Richanne, who had a question for me. This wasn’t a question of care relating to my wellbeing. No, no, Richanne definitely never does anything of the sort. Instead, she asked what position I was planning on running for. I replied ambitiously and said Secretary, which was met with “How about President-elect?” I said I’d think about it.
Even though I said there are bigger societies out there, OSLA is still not small by any means, especially with over 200 members. It’s a responsibility. On top of this, I never expected that I’d be in the running to lead any society, let alone one that I revere so much.
Ultimately, I agreed to run in the elections, which meant I was put up against my friend Ava. After a long discussion outside a pub, we agreed to let the best person win. This didn’t last long, though; while I was in Warwick at a social trying to keep Harry alive (which is a recurring theme), we all found out that Ava had decided to drop out of the race, meaning I only had to worry about a late surge into the polls from RON. But his campaigning wasn’t successful, and so I was now the President-Elect of the society and arguably even more jobless.
The start of my 2nd Hilary term as President-elect left me with little structure. My role was simple: prepare for my term in Trinity. I felt personally very unproductive, but somehow, I was told I was ahead of schedule. Particularly as the first person from Brookes ever to lead the society, it perhaps was a bit of imposter syndrome shining through. However, whenever I had a speaker confirmation or a cross-party event idea arranged, it helped somewhat. Plus, meeting various lovely people such as Lord Newby and Iain Sollom MP reminded me that I was here for a reason, and that was because I love what I do.
The epitome of this was our Dublin trip. It was an eventful trip to say the least … well, for me it was. We were set to go there for a weekend, and what a weekend it was. Between the Guinness, the history, and a tour of the Irish Parliament on the cards, there was plenty to look forward to. While the events we attended and even meeting the Taoiseach were special, and I’ll never forget them, this isn’t what made the trip special. It was the time I spent with everyone else on committee, sat in pubs eating together, and the stories that we shared. This, whenever I think about it for some reason, brings us to when we were heading back to eat lunch in a Subway before we all headed off. We all sat discussing plans of how we were heading back, whilst Richanne made fun of a bruise I’d picked up the night before. I thought to myself, I could spend day after day with these people, going over the same or similar events for the rest of my degree, and I wouldn’t regret a thing.
This was my motivation, and now, after my Presidency is almost over, I don’t want to leave. I like to think that in my term with the events I have done and the speakers I have invited, I’ve lived up to the reverence I have for this society. I will stay on until I am no longer needed to help this society provide others with the amount of joy that it has provided me.