New Relationships

Who doesn’t want friends? Meeting friends in secondary school was facilitated by the fact that you studied with the same group of classmates every day. In university, however, this can be very different. While your secondary school best friends may not come to this university, you may not go to every class with the same group of classmates. At times, you may find yourself in a lecture theatre with more than 100 people in the same class. Inevitably, it can be quite demanding for you to develop new relationships.

Students who have difficulties in adjusting will commonly experience feelings of loneliness and isolation. While you may be still missing your old friends and want to maintain old relationships, are you also ready to build new relationship with classmates, project-mates, roommates, hall-mates, fellow committee members and university staff, etc.?

Relationships with roommates in particular are a new thing to most students, especially when the roommate has a different upbringing and comes from a different culture. In fact, it is likely that your roommate will have different personal needs and boundaries from yours, such as handling of personal properties, sleep and study habit, personal hygiene, etc. Sometimes, it may be unrealistic to expect your roommate to be your best friend. However, it is totally possible for you to work out with your roommate some mutually satisfying living arrangements. Learn to compromise and respect is also your important developmental task.

University is an excellent place for you to interact with others from diverse cultures and backgrounds. There are many opportunities available for relationship building.