The light at the end of the tunnel (Zoë)

Two more days of university left until Easter! Yay! I’m really excited about going home on Thursday evening. I haven’t been home since the day I left for college, which was about a month and a half ago. Lots of other people have gone home on the weekends, but I’ve had other commitments and I just haven’t managed it. I shouldn’t be complaining, because there’s lots of other people at college from overseas or interstate who haven’t been home and won’t until the mid-year break. But I miss home and I’m looking forward so much to just sleeping in my own bed, eating home-cooked meals, and having my own bathroom.

One of the main things I’ve noticed in the first six weeks of uni is how difficult it is to make friends. Sometimes it feels like my life is simply go to class, come back and study, eat, sleep, uni, study, uni, study, and so on. I’m shy and anti-social by nature, and so it’s very unlikely that I’m going to strike up a conversation with the person sitting next to me, but it takes so much effort that I really think most people just can’t be bothered. We’re all just too lazy, but more importantly, I think we’re all too afraid of being rejected. And so we don’t talk to the people sitting next to us, when in reality, they might be our best friends just waiting to happen. Yesterday in my HPS tute my tutor got us to split into two groups and attempt to debate a topic. I say attempt because we naturally got off topic. But being forced to communicate to the others in my class made me realise how friendly everyone was, and how similar many of our experiences were. If only I’d been brave enough to talk to them before, I would have realised that earlier.

So I guess the lesson here is to be the one to make the first step. To ask someone what they’re doing for Easter, or to complain bitterly to them about how much you hate your class/lecture/assignment. But of course, it’s easier just to sit still and concentrate on drawing the symbol from Heroes in the corner of my page. I have confidence that there’s still time for making friends – after all, those of us doing double degrees are here for five years. I think the most important thing at this stage is not to get depressed about it, and just to accept that these things take time, and effort – effort which we have to be willing to put in.