A college degree is not a sign of a finished product but an indication a person is prepared for life.

A Monk’s Reflection, Reverend Edward A. Malloy

In a 2017 survey conducted by the American College Health Association, more than 60% of nearly 28, 000 students on 51 campuses said that they had felt “very lonely” in the previous 12 months. Nearly 30% said that they had felt that way in the two weeks preceding the survey.

No matter how prepared students think they are for college or university life, they might still feel anxious when they arrive on campus. Although most students are excited about starting their college life, the thought of leaving behind the comforts of home, high school friends, and the care of parents and family can be very stressful. The challenges of making new friends and creating a new social life can be intimidating, especially for the students who are shy, introverted, or disabled. In a sea of people, they find themselves adrift when they first arrive at their college campus.

Music, art, literature and science are some of the things that one might pick up as a passion while in college. Yet, of all these things the associated and communicated experience in a campus is the most important objective for building a sense of community. For this, care, mutuality, fraternity and friendship serve as the basic tools which help to make a campus a community.

I am reminded of my first days in a new classroom in my new college. I was looking at a sea of strangers as I sat alone on the last bench of the class, searching for a familiar face. Classes come and go and slowly a busy semester flies by. Slowly, those unknown faces become familiar. Participating in college events, group assignments, group study, canteen addas, long classes, library study parties, random trips to the city, bunking classes to watch movies—these experiences made all of us students a family. Each and every part of the campus became part of our life as and that made the campus a community for us.

In fact, on the last of college, everyone was sad. We clicked teary- eyed photographs, went to meet our teachers, thanked them for their support and care. We felt nostalgic and numb at that final moment. For three years, we had sat at the same last bench. We could remember out early days vividly.

Teachers’ lessons and care, and the friendships I made have shaped the person I am today. Care, mutuality, fraternity are emotions one can experience through one’s college life. We all know that friendship requires people who are willing to put in the effort to show each other that they care. It connects people. Fraternity, a feeling of friendship and support that exists between the members of a group to keep the group tied together. As, Jerry Krarmer, an American footballer has beautifully said, “College was especially sweet because of the positive, hopeful atmosphere of a college campus.”

Palashi Das is a pursuing Masters in English in Literature at the Cotton University, Guwahati. She is currently in her second year of post-graduation.