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One Mind, A Million Thoughts: How to Deal with Them?

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The University of Delhi (DU) commenced its new academic session 2019-20 on 20th July 2019, with over 62,000 freshers joining the Varsity this year. Here are a few thoughts, fears, and anxieties that may be numbing the minds of all freshers, and how to cope up with them.

Freshmen hailing from all parts of the country (and some even from outside the country!) have started on their three-year journey with immense zeal and excitement. Apparently, there are a million thoughts flocking in the minds of the new-comers to the Varsity. The diversity in the student composition of the University is immense, and so is in their thoughts. Some possess a desire to shine out in the crowd, while some are willing to remain just the way they are.

But don’t worry, we are here to help! In pursuance of a better understanding of dealing with these thoughts, here are a few things that we did to make ourselves feel comfortable in the same space.

 

  • Nostalgia– This is one feeling that has clenched us every time an era has come to an end, and a new phase of life has started. Sometimes, being nostalgic is soothing. But more often, nostalgia is depressive, and restricts our ability to initiate a new start. Kashvi Verma, a first-year student in Political Science at Kirorimal College said, “I’ve been missing school a lot lately! I really didn’t think that would happen because I was too excited for college, but reaching here, I started to miss all the busy work schedules I had in school, all my friends, etc. I felt welcomed in school, but here it’s all so different, suddenly, that it makes me want to go back. But I am trying, to be comfortable with it.”

 

Coping Mechanism:-
Make new friends from your own batch, they are all on the same page as you, and you are all going to make some ecstatic memories together.
Start getting involved in your college’s societies which will keep you engaged and you will get lesser time to think about how the past made you feel more comfortable. (And believe it, this is all going to settle down in a while, just give it some time, that’s all it needs!)

 

  • “I don’t know how to make friends, I’m lonely!”– This feeling need not be stressed over much because everyone has had this coming back to us multiple times for the entire duration of the first semester at least. A lot of times we’ve heard freshmen exclaiming, “What if they (fellow batchmates) judge me for my appearance?”, “Whether I’m impactful enough or not?”, “What if everybody hates me already?” This is something that all of us have struggled with at the beginning of college but we’ve all met the same conclusion, that it will end very soon, and the end is going to be beautiful. Garvit Goswami, a first-year student in Economics at Shri Ram College of Commerce said, “Thankfully, I managed to make quite a few friends on the day of my admission and on the orientation. But if that wouldn’t have happened, I can only imagine how lonely I would have been for the entire first week

 

Coping Mechanism:
You need not break out of your eggshell right in the beginning, but eventually, when you start feeling a little comfortable and confident you will have to make an effort, too, to be able to interact with the people around you and make a space for yourself in this ‘group’.
Don’t be afraid of being judged, everyone with you is in the same place as you and are entangled in the same thoughts as you.
Be firm and confident about what you are wearing, and how you are behaving.
Have a friendly appearance with a welcoming smile-  you will end up making a bunch of friends.

 

  • Popularity– Bollywood has definitely created a very misleading impression about college life in its series of “Student of the Year”, “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” and “Main Hoon Na”. And let’s face it, everybody who’s been acing their fields in the micro-world of school, and comes to college thinking that the same will happen in the large world that you’re exposed to in college, actually has their hopes shattered as soon as the auditions and selection process for the co-curricular societies begins in the very first week. But by the time the third semester begins, the unknown ‘fuchchas’ start to make a name in the societies and in academics, and get to establish themselves in the place of their outgoing seniors. “I entered Hindu College as a little baby girl who needed real babysitting from her seniors. I was pissed at the very thought of having to speak to a senior for the smallest of things. Slowly when I started to realise what real college life was and joined the choreography society, I gathered the confidence to bunk classes, hang out with friends and have fun. The transformation from first-year to second-year is immense, and everyone going past this time will experience it for themselves,” said Urzica Chauhan, a second-year student of B.A. Program at Hindu College.

 

Coping Mechanism:
Join a Society! Societies not only help you polish your soft skills but also help you gain confidence and make a name for yourself.
Try and make friends with the seniors from your department. They’ll help you settle down in the department easily.

 

  • Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)– Fear of Missing Out, or FOMO as we call it, is the anxiety and stress that almost every new-comer to college experiences. It is the stress of having missed out on seemingly important stuff while acquiring other tasks/goals. Mostly FOMO is linked to tasks/goals that your friends are pursuing. Since they’re different from the ones you are acquiring, you fear that you probably missed out on important and seemingly life-changing opportunities, and thus start to become prey to it.

Coping Mechanism:

Chill out a bit! College has millions of opportunities to offer, and all of them will come your way. It’s okay to have missed out on a few to prioritise the ones you chose in the first place.
You need to imperatively stop comparing yourself with your friends/batch mates. Understand, that they are different people, with different insights and interests, and it is not important that whatever comes your way, also comes their way, and vice versa. At the end of the day, you will have to prioritise yourself, your choices, and your lives over theirs.

With this being said, we hope that all of our readers who are undergoing these pressurising thoughts, will come out of them as stronger, more mature individuals, and be able to face the real world of college with a more courageous instinct.

 

Feature Image Credits: The New York Times

Yaksh Handa

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Life at Delhi University

A DU Beat Guide on Flying Past this Semester

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The advent of a new semester is synonymous with fun, more activities, and more opportunities, but it is also marked by stress, pressure, and piling workload. The key is to manage both of them efficiently, and emerge scratch-free on the other side.

A few tips and tricks that need to be kept in mind to meet your goals, and have a successful semester:
1. Attend Classes
Sleeping in, and skipping that 8 a.m. class will be tempting at times, specially during winter when leaving your blanket and getting dressed is a difficult task. Avoid the temptation. Besides gaining new knowledge by attending classes, you’ll also receive vital information from the professors about what to expect in tests, changes in due dates, etc. An increase in attendance means an increased involvement in classwork, thus you won’t be clueless for upcoming tests, internal submissions, and examinations. It also shows your professors the initiative that you are taking, which proves helpful while asking for recommendations. Keep an app or a thorough record of your attendance as a reminder of the number of classes you have, or ought to attend.
2. Organise Yourself
College life is a mixture of social and academic happenings. Don’t tip the balance too far in either direction. However for that, you’ll need a proper organisation method. Get yourself a planner, mark important events date wise, take a note of the number of hours each task entails, and come up with a rough schedule. Plan your study and outing time
in advance, an advice which becomes especially important in the even semester with the number of tests increasing rapidly. Working out a schedule is imperative to enjoy as well as not lag behind in your work.
3. Put In Your 100%
Some students start better than they finish. The ‘fizzle out effect’ is pretty common, which means students put in little effort in the beginning of the semester. However, most courses are ‘backloaded’, that is they need you to put in the effort and make submissions towards the end when most people have already given up. It is essential to distribute your workload throughout the semester to retain the zeal, and spirit one has in the beginning.

4. Stay Healthy
In order to function efficiently and stay fit, it is essential that one takes good care of their health. The semester being
short, strenuous, and full of activity, can affect your health massively. Eating healthy is important, along with cutting
down on junk food, midnight cravings, and exercising regularly. Above all, eight hours of sleep every night must not be compromised with.

5. Stay Positive
It is imperative to have the right sort of attitude in order to succeed and do well. It means trying to see the silver lining, staying confident, believing in yourself, accepting your flaws and shortcomings, and dealing with them with a cool head. It is essential to stay positive, and place a firm belief in your capabilities, to not only do well in academic life, but in daily life as well.

Feature Image Credits: Musings of Jackie Dana

Bhavika Behal
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DUB Speak

New Semester Blues

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The beginning of a new year is  followed by a whole new semester to look forward to. New semesters can be a lot of fun, but extremely demanding and confusing at the same time.

Right after the New Year has been welcomed, and the party shoes have been carefully taken off and kept back in the cupboard for another year, the new semester begins without much of a wait. The semester break granted seems too short, and the idea of getting back into the grind is almost painful. Sleeping seems like the best option, the cold only aggravating the situation. The freshers are now well-acquainted with college life, and do not seem to harbour the same kind of curiosity, the sparkle almost completely lost from their eyes now.

New semesters also mean the arrival of the much-awaited fest season. The usual college hopping to check out the happenings, pestering your friends from SRCC or LSR to get you passes to their fests, skipping classes to go to North Campus from South Campus.  Students who are a part of a society might find their hands full, as this is the busiest time of the year for extra-curricular activities. The various cuisines, exciting games, attractive people, and engaging performances, create an enchanting atmosphere. People from all over the country come to attend the brilliant shows put on by Delhi University colleges. No expense is spared to make fests the brilliant affairs that they are. 

However, competitions of various kinds, fests, after-parties, and the unnecessary bunking of classes eventually comes to an end. What follows is a feeling of emptiness, and a general glooms overcomes the same people, and buildings, which were once covered in gold streamers. Once individuals and institutions are striped of their decorations and party-faces, getting back to a routine becomes a task. The good old blues, associated with mundanity, kick in, and the anxiety of existence slowly creeps back in.

One finds themselves short of attendance at the end of it all, be it society or a non-society member. Academics take a backseat, and one may find themselves cursing their decisions during end semester exams, for not being more vigilant. Moreover, it doesn’t help that the semester is shorter. The duration might not seem like a huge problem at the beginning, but towards the end, when the end-semester pangs set in, you would be wishing for more time.

The only piece of solid advice here would be to relish this time as much as you can, since you are only young once. Managing your time efficiently during this period, is also imperative, along with the ‘fun’ part. After all, attending lectures, and learning new things, can also be as much fun as dancing till dawn to EDM. The goal lies in defeating the ever-present semester blues, and facing each day with as much zeal as possible.

Too many things packed into five months would just fly by in a wink and one does not really want to be seen wishing for lost time back.

 

Feature Image Credits: The Indian Express

Anoushka Singh

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DUB Speak

End of semester: How time flies and the importance of self-reflection

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It seems like the idiom ‘time flies’ has never been truer. With college, extra-curriculars, and the ever-present technology, we always have something to do and are never truly alone with ourselves.

 

It may seem to many of us that the semester just began, and in what seemed like the blink of an eye, it is over. We tend to be so occupied in building our future, that we forget to live in our present. It is a relentless process of looking at the forthcoming adventures, which never hurts, and is, in fact, a great thing to do.

But, we need to reflect on ourselves. Keep a constant check on whether what we are doing is giving us joy. Often, there is an inexplicable sadness that accompanies people our age. It is okay to have emotions and be as vulnerable as is humanly possible but don’t get scorched by a flame that is not worthy of it.

Our thoughts are our feelings, and if we don’t organize, divide and label our thoughts, we never understand how we feel. We keep going on about life, shoving all of our opinions aside, robotically. But that goes against human-nature, hence the sadness. We hope that tomorrow will bring something better along with it, but we never actually think our way through.

Careers, relationships, budgets, these all are the things that need to be looked into and given a quality-check frequently. And this is to be done alone!

‘Alone’ is a word that most people fear, but shouldn’t. With the ease of commute, travel and communication, modern humans are never truly alone, and have a certain phobia of the concept. But we need to learn to be friends with ourselves, to enjoy our own company. We need to talk to ourselves, we are our best judges.

What I would suggest is sit and look back on what you did this semester; where you were when it started, and how far have you come? Then imagine where you want to see yourself in the next 10 years. All the things that you are doing right now, which are in line with your ‘ideal future-self’, keep doing them and get rid of all the wasteful things. It is important to clean the shelves, wipe off the dust, and create a clean space within. And then, make self-reflection a habit!

 

Image caption: Importance of self-reflection.

Image credits: The Social Rush

 

 

Maumil Mehraj

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Top Picks

3 things to keep in mind before starting a new semester

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New semester

A new semester is either a dreadful or a pleasant opportunity for the Delhi University students. Irony hangs heavy when the experience of going through ‘Board Exams’ every six months has students on the extreme ends of the stress spectrum. Either they are stressed and anxious right from the beginning or are ‘casual’ about the supposedly serious things. For both kinds of people, here are three things to keep in mind for a new semester

1. Setting a target

Right from the beginning, set your goals for a new semester or just set the goal of not setting any after all. Changing things midway won’t land you either way. If you decide to achieve something by the end of the semester, then strive for it. If you decide to drop goals in the middle then there was no point in the beginning to start and pursue them. Realising what can be a realistic goal is important and no exterior force can bring this realisation.

2. Balancing social and academic lives

This realm haunts most of the DU students. The act of balancing here requires being or getting smart enough to be aware of what’s to be done when. Although a person can balance both of them efficiently, the supposed efficiency proves to be detrimental for both the areas. It needs to be understood that in a time frame, only one area needs to be focused on. Focusing on both the areas at the same time would involve a lot of juggling.

3. Figuring out the way to score

After results of a semester are declared, one understands the plus and the minus of the academic system. It is wise to discuss the extrapolation regarding the techniques to score with your college mates. Developing a concrete notion on scoring before starting a semester is always helpful.

 

 

Image credits: http://blogs.simmons.edu/

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