It’s that time of year again. As we shake the sand from our clothes, stow the sunglasses in a drawer and once again fill our backpacks with paper in preparation for the new school year, many upperclassmen may feel as though they have it all figured out. In recent days I’ve heard and made many a comment observing how energetic and optimistic the incoming freshmen appear to be.
While certainly we ‘jaded college veterans’ have often found a niche for ourselves within the university ecosystem, that doesn’t excuse us from taking the opportunity to push ourselves out of our comfort zones, as the first-years are repeatedly instructed to do.
I was reminded of this while eating breakfast in the dining hall recently. A student I had never seen before approached my table and asked to sit down. In conversation, I soon confirmed my original assumption that this student was, in fact, a first-year, but once we had parted ways, I reflected upon the implications of that assumption.
First-years, often having only a handful of high school friends at the university, surely have more reason to make new connections than returning students. But seeing as it’s hard to have too many friends or engage with too many people’s diverse experiences, upperclassmen could benefit equally well from taking advantage of Welcome Week to speak to as many unfamiliar people as possible.
Even as upperclassmen, we can still learn more about different student organizations and what they do through events like Campus Connections. Likewise, WKNC’s Concert on the Lawn allows students to listen to local music and talk with all number of different students. Other events appeal to students’ particular interests and can help them identify others with similar passions. These events all promote interactions among students and can lead to valuable experiences.
Making an effort to meet new people is important for a number reasons. As we finish our GEP requirements and become increasingly specialized within our majors, upperclassmen lose access to a powerful means for expanding our friend groups and so run the risk of becoming more isolated.
Likewise, moving to off-campus housing further insulates students without the assortment of faces found in hall- or suite-style dorm life. It also can increase the hassle involved with getting to on-campus activities, reducing the incentive to experience new things.
It’s especially important that we focus on friendships during college, as an article from The Atlantic notes. It’s rare in adult life to have an environment where you are able to spend large amounts of time socializing and making friends, as demands from work, relationships and children tend to take precedence.
We shouldn’t shoot ourselves in the foot by transitioning to a “middle-aged” friendship model sooner than we have to, as it is difficult to make up for the missed friendships later in life. It’s also somewhat difficult to predict which friends will last for many years, as the article explains, so we disadvantage ourselves by not creating as large a pool of friends as possible.
Fortunately, the spirit of Welcome Week and the activities it offers serve as an immensely useful way of meeting a wide range of people outside of our majors or residential areas. Even if such interactions don’t develop into lasting friendships, putting yourself in an uncomfortable situation and speaking to new people helps maintain social skills that enable us to empathize with others and build a wider understanding of the community’s human landscape.
This week, let us welcome new faces to NC State, but let us not forget that we are not so much wiser than the bright-eyed freshmen coming to campus. Indeed, their enthusiasm is something upperclassmen could stand to learn a great deal from. Welcome back, Wolfpack.
