Dear fellow students,
Today, I’ve been honored to speak to you all by welcoming you to the field of psychology. But also to something broader: to university life. I will start with acknowledging the tough times we’ve been through to get here: some of us had to persuade our parents, others had to persuade themselves; while some were lost and confused about their field of study, others will dishearted to have to abandon their field of interest. Gap years, confusions, anxieties, arguments; it has been a hard time since we left our colleges. Yet the good news is, that we have all made it here: and from here on, begins a new chapter. A chapter of growth, of becoming self-aware, of building a character out of us, of meeting new people and learning new things, and on a scarier note: a beginning of the lives we will lead in the years after our graduation. So while the common advice most of you might receive, will be: ‘Enjoy! These are your best years’, today, myself being a final year student, I’ll tell how to make most of these four years. Enjoy you all shall, but I want to make sure that you understand that there’s a difference between enjoyment and ruining your life. As psychology students, it is needed of professionally that we know why we do what we do; what does our behavior convey about our inner lives; and how to use this self-consciousness for building a better version of ourselves day in and day out. And we can do that by becoming our own first clients or patients – after all, the word ‘patient’ means the person who suffers: and aren’t we all suffering, in one way or another? Anyways, here goes my little list of some practical and follow-worthy suggestions about university life – ignore at your own peril!
1: become a self-reliant student; ignore short-comings of others and work your own short-falls.
2: teachers won’t make you understand things, thinking is your job.
3: focus on what you can learn out of the subjects you study, not if you can earn an A grade. As the saying goes: when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
4: friends are good for helping you waste the time you don’t know how to use; otherwise, books are the best friends you can make during these four years.
5: make a habit of thinking ahead and keeping your eyes on the horizon: know what you are striving towards and your little failures won’t bother as much.
6: confusion is part of the 20s: no one knows what they are doing. Be your own mentor; sit and think with yourself; ask yourself questions, and then try to answer them.
7: try not to lose yourself in the conformity with your peers. Have your original take at the challenges, ideas, activities, and values. You should at least know a little about who you are as a person by the end of your graduation.
8: plan, prepare, foresee, and always be ready for what comes next. Plans are nothing, they say, but planning is everything.
9: artificial confidence might come from a hack: dressing cool, speaking a boastful tone, being so full of yourself. But the real confidence has to stand on a foundation, which you build by studying, learning, understanding, and in believing in what you’ve understood.
10: and finally, become passionate about something and lose yourself in it. Be it what you’re studying or something you can pursue on the side. Make these years worthy of looking back and something to be grateful about. Remember: your future self depends upon you!