By JESSICA SCHIEBER
Why is it so hard to make time for friends in college?
We are so focused on grades, assignments and classes that any extra time we may have we use to get work done.
It is so hard to set aside time and go out and have dinner with a friend, or to meet up for a conversation.
Most times I’m stuck having to cram in time, or I don’t talk to a friend in person for weeks.
Having friendships and in person conversations with someone is very important so when it doesn’t happen it can bring a person’s mental health down a lot.
People always say they don’t have time or they are too busy to meet up, but then they’ll start falling behind in their classes because they are getting depressed.
As students we have responsibility to get our stuff done, but as human beings we have a responsibility to make sure our mental health is in check. Taking care of mental health looks different for everyone. This could be getting coffee with a friend, going to Walmart with your friends, taking a walk outside or studying together.
You must take care of your mental health if you want to take care of your actual health.Life is too much to carry alone, you have to depend on each other to get through it.
It gets even harder when your friends aren’t in college with you, how are you supposed to take care of your mental health when you aren’t anywhere near your friends?
This, for me, looks like joining TikTok lives with my friends.
It’s an easy way for all of us to talk to one another without having to give away any more private social media accounts. My friends Lisa and April are from Michigan, my friend Jack is from Australia, and I have tons of others from all around the world.
We also talk to each other through Snapchat group chats which Lisa is obsessed with making.
I am currently a part of five different group chats with these people.
They are called Tea Time, Minecrwaft, Another one, Another one pt. 2 and Another one pt. 3.
These chats can annoy me at times, but they also bring me a lot of joy through my day. I would be struggling a lot more if I wasn’t able to do these things. I really do appreciate these people a lot, and I can only hope they feel the same about me.
I also have my friends who are in college with me and I find it harder to make time for them than my online friends, which seems backwards to be.
It’ll be weeks before I’m able to talk to them or meet them for something, but I can talk to my online friends daily. I cannot believe how I struggle more to reach out to those closer to me.
I have struggled a lot with thinking that my firends here feel like I am ignoring them when in reality I just have a lot of work to get done.
With my online friends we can just call and chat and do our own things, but with my friends here I find it hard to just call and be with eachother and work.
I try to meet with my friends at least once a month to unwind and keep eachother updated on our lives.
Mental health means a lot to this generation, and yet we are still ignoring the talk about it when it is most important.
We struggle, that’s a part of life, our mental health has its highs and lows. We can’t just ignore it anyomore.
This is a part of who we are and pretending like we aren’t bothered by not having human interaction.
As humans, we need interaction and we are the only ones who can make ourselves get that interaction.
When we don’t get that interaction everything falls apart.
So take this as a reminder to go and talk to your friends, keep them in mind.