You’ll get no support by remaining silent

We all know that feeling we get when we first come to some place new, especially when we feel so confused and lost on what to do next.

I could not help but overhear a few anonymous freshmen referring to how nice it would be if someone would come along and give them a helping hand with their work and school issues. I heard the same type of conversation the next day, but it was from upperclass students. Towards the end of the week, after hearing one version of the conversation after another, I realized that a lot of people don’t have assistance problems, but issues finding that help.

Needing help does not make us weak. Unfortunately, the opposite was my view for the longest time. I now realize that it is, in fact, what makes us strong. We would do well to remember that the campus is filled with resources to assist people, whether one has issues with courses, or finding clubs, or groups to participate with. Faculty and staff don’t mind giving advice or directing individuals to someone to help resolve a problem.

Thoughout this college’s 100 year history, innumerable students have gone through what students might be going through right now. At some point in life everyone feels alone. Keep in mind that nobody has to go through anything alone, regardless of what the problem may be.

Typically, we are under the impression that asking for assistance inconveniences others, and that we should not bother people just to get our own issues fixed. We have to realize that as human beings, we are social creatures. Because of that, we rely on others for our needs even if we don’t acknowledge it.

Take your job, for example. You hear now and then people who say, “I got my job on my own.” Don’t believe that for a second. As much skill as he or she may have, they still needed the service of his or her employer in order to get that job. At some point in time, he or she had to have gotten advice on the process of interviewing with a potential employer.

Even if said person did not get any advice, they still needed someone to hand them the application or even let them know that the work was available.

Although it is a simple example, it proves my point: Humans help each other out. You’re bound to have one person pull over on the highway if you have a blown tire. Or to have someone lend you a ride when you are in need of transportation to go to the doctor. Even going to the store to buy food or supplies comes with a pair of helping hands to help carry groceries out to your vehicle.

We’re inevitably bound to need help in one way or another. We didn’t learn to walk on our own. We didn’t learn to eat on our own. Surely someone had to have shown us how to make sure we get clean in the shower.

I am a stubborn guy myself, so when it comes to help, my pride and pure unbending attitude prevents me from asking for it. For example, my first week back this year was more difficult than the previous first weeks of school in the past two years.

In some cases, I was able to figure out what to do on my own. But I was smart enough to know when I should have asked for guidance, and when I did, I didn’t feel embarrassed. College life and adult life can be pretty overwhelming at times, and our generation is no different than those that came before us.

As the 17th century British poet John Donne, once wrote, “No man is an island.”

So don’t be afraid to jump in the water. There are plenty of fish in the sea just like yourself.