You are not alone

You are not alone

Before entering university, we’re fed into information from every graduate, being told about how amazing our lives will be once we begin university. It’s revised with us that university would be where our lives would begin, and how we’re going to have the time of our lives, that we’re never going to forget, etc. This is reinforced over and under by people, either by word of mouth. Or, with the growing world of media, the presence of our seniors and university going friends and family depict a very positively enforced scenario where they make sure to seem like they’re having the time of their lives.

So the excitement and high expectations are only natural, and yet, for almost every student, there is a cultural shock waiting that no one prepared us for.

From the first day of orientation, we find ourselves swimming in unchartered waters. If you join an institute where you don’t know anywhere, you feel awkward because you don’t know how to make friends. If you do have friends from college in the same institute, you forget to make new friends, and in situations where they are not around, you find yourself feeling uncomfortable and alone.

Interacting with new people is difficult at any age, but it gets worse as we grow older. If your teachers are smart, they will make you do ice breakers and introduce yourself to others. If not, then you find yourself avoiding interaction and don’t know how to talk to the person who’s seated next to you.

The first few months of university, regardless of whether you have college friends in the same institute, causes crippling anxiety in everyone. People don’t know what to do in their free time, where to sit or who to talk to, and wander around campus looking for spaces to hide. They feel too embarrassed to ask for help, and brand new insecurities start arising where you feel like every other student understands what is being taught, except you. (This happens to be a lie since everyone feels this way.)
But there are many different things you can do at university to shake yourself out of these anxieties, and the quicker you do them, the easier life becomes.