After a difficult challenge, now you're in college! University life is a period of life where changes are intense. In fact, every change in life brings about a process of adjustment. Moving out of your house into a single room that you have to share with someone is also quite a change. Sharing a room with someone you don't know can give you feelings such as anxiety, fear, excitement. But it may help you to pay attention to some points so that you can cope with these feelings and adapt to the dormitory life.
AMENITIES OF DORMITORY LIFE
- The biggest advantage and ease of staying in the dormitory is that it provides you with the opportunity to make friends from different departments as well as from the departments you are studying.
- Dormitory life is the most beautiful environment to learn to share. Being in an environment where many things are shared, especially the living area, may make you uncomfortable from the start, but you will also find that there are positive aspects to it over time. The more you share, the closer you will realize that people are getting to you, and you will find people who will share something with you when you need it.
- Home is not only a place of shelter, but also the first step of adulthood and a way of life in which freedom is under your control.
- You are now in university; you have taken the first step into adulthood and the dormitory is a major denominator of this; a period begins where no one will follow all the decisions about when to study or when to sleep. During this period, you may encounter many seductive opportunities. Of course, there will be times when you have a lot of fun taking advantage of these opportunities, but unlike high school, here the consequences of your decisions are entirely yours.
- Staying in the dormitory is a very good opportunity for you to make better use of your time. You can organize your life more easily, take more advantage of on-campus spaces (library, cafeterias and sports fields etc.).
CHALLENGES OF DORMITORY LIFE:
- You may miss home life, someone who is away from home for the first time may feel a very big longing for home at first. Some may seem self-absorbed in new friendships at university, not yearning for their previous life, while in others, yearning may occur later. With this longing, feelings of loneliness, sadness, fear of change, such as waiting to be disappointed can occur.
To cope with the longing and the emotions it brings:
- You can talk to someone you feel close to. (You can get encouragement from someone in your family, contacting a friend you already know.)
- Place items that previously belonged to you in your room, this will make you feel more familiar.
- Go for a walk, try to get to know the environment, you will feel more confident as you get to know the environment.
- Say hi! Try to make friends by contacting people.
- Plan your next vacation. (Knowing your next date of departure will control your sudden desire to return home and will allow you to focus on staying here.)
- Your roommate may be a person who thinks very differently from you, has a different cultural structure, and you may not agree on some issues.
To deal with this situation:
- Do not enter the expectation that your roommate will be your best friend in your school life. The important thing is that you respect each other under all circumstances.
- After getting to know each other, talk sincerely about the basic issues that are important to you and your friend (cleanliness and order, working order, visitors, daily living habits and use of common goods, etc.) you can even write the rules you set. This makes you more comfortable talking about what might happen later.
- Respect differences, unlike home life, you share the same roof with many separate people, you expect everyone to agree with you will disappoint you over time. In addition, review your habits that may be uncomfortable, do not expect the ones in the dormitory to tolerate the things that your parents tolerate.
- Talk about things you don't like. Don't build up your resentments, or you can have big explosions in tiny events.
- Do not yell at your roommate, if you do so, you will end the communication without starting. Discussing, trying to communicate, talking about why problems are happening helps you overcome problems.
- Listen to her/him, remember that every story always has at least two sides. When you listen to her/him, you can actually notice that there's something you can't see when you look at it from your side.
- 'Use I language ' instead of using incriminating and offensive statements, talk about the impact of behavior on you.
- If you have disagreements or if you continue to care about all of these, seek assistance from a neutral third party; this person may be a dormitory Manager, Assistant Manager or Psychological Counselor.
Remember that adaptation to university life is a process and that the difficulties experienced from time to time are not the result of the inability to adapt, but the result of the effort to adapt. We are ready to help you in the challenges you may experience during this period. You can contact the Psychological Counseling Unit about all the issues you want to share.
Department of Health, Culture and Sports, Guidance and Psychological Counseling Unit
email: [email protected]
Telephone: 0216 626 10 50 - 2062