If I could go back to my first semester, there are a billion things I would change but the first would be to ask questions more often. It’d be easier now if I could keep the personality and experience I’ve developed in the past five years; but for the doe-eyed young freshman it was harder. Not only were the bouts of shyness and social anxiety a factor, not only did my social circle not have many answers considering they were also freshman, but the university and its services felt like a maze (literally if discussing the top floor of D building) of bureaucracy, office hours, and automated replies.
It might not happen in the most efficient or useful manner, but eventually for better or worse things fell into place and I learned to navigate this place, the life of a student, as best I could. Many of us have, but to this day I’m still learning more about the services available to me and the support or habits that I should be developing. It wasn’t until I took a more active role in mentoring younger students however, with the RBC Arts Peer Mentor Program, that the gap became even more apparent.
In talking to the younger students, often in their first year, I’m reminded of how much there really is to prepare for and learn when pursuing higher education. We don’t just always ***know how to find a balance between school, work, and life; we often have to learn through mishaps and regret. Test-taking skills, academic resources, setting up appointments with career advisors, or even knowing where to take a nap; these are all things that we either have figured out or learned to do without — but could prove invaluable to someone just entering university for the first time.
What I’m getting at is, I know we are focused (and should be) on what is in front of us, but in any capacity you can I urge you to take a moment in your first or second year elective to give thought to the students around us who may be struggling or scared or just have a burning question they feel too embarrassed to ask. I’ve never seen anyone react poorly to being asked directions to get around, so I know this campus has got some great friendly people. We should just do a better job in lending a hand and being open to sharing and collaboration; we all have some insight or experience to add to the zeitgeist of student life. We should pay it forward for the person who directed us to our classroom on the first day of school, which was successful enough to bring you to this moment of reading your student newspaper!
Whether informal, through clubs and study groups, or more formally through the mentoring and tutoring programs on campus (who, wink wink, will be looking for staff and volunteers for next fall and possibly right now) we’ve all got some good advice in us that could help someone scrape a few less knees and spend a little less on textbooks. And not to mention the additional bonuses of (in advancing order from the moment of giving advice): a good feeling for being helpful, a better understanding of how people might face obstacles you don’t, a better understanding of how you yourself function as a student and human being, and increased gross domestic product for your nation as a capable mind is able to flourish and contribute to the workforce and therefore support the structures and necessary funds for your retirement in your old age!
