Navigating the Emotional Changes In Entering Tertiary Life
Written by Nurul Nabilah, YouthTech Trainee
Whether we like it or not, transitions are a part of life. Oftentimes, they are necessary if we are to grow and stretch beyond who we are and what we already know. With transitions, come changes that we need to contend with, and these are often accompanied by a whole suite of feelings.
With the upcoming release of A Level results on Tuesday, 22 February 2022, this article focuses on the transition that students in general are soon to go through in the process of entering tertiary life.
If you are a student at this stage, there may be a whole array of feelings that you are experiencing. Uncertainty about the future, anxiety over the results of your hard work, stress from not knowing what’s next - these are just some of the feelings that can come into the mix.
So, how can one cope with the feelings brought on by this upcoming transition?
In my opinion, a little investigative work can pay off big time! Scoping out your options early is one way to manage the uncertainty. Be it through checking out the different tertiary institutions’ websites, making enquiries through official channels, or attending open houses, it is a good practice to help determine if the courses and schools that you are interested in are really what you want. In the course of doing so, you might even discover other options that appeal to you more! In particular, attending open houses serves as a good way to look into the environment at each institution. Personally, I recall attending Polytechnic open houses for 3 years straight. The best thing is, almost all tertiary institutions have their own open houses so the available options are not limited to only Polytechnics, and more informed decisions can be made based on your experience.
At the same time, do not allow analysis to become the enemy leading to paralysis! Rather than anxiously worrying over your many options, consider what ‘confident exploration’ might look and feel like.
Many perceive this to be a major fork in the road of life, one that would more or less determine their lives and careers in the long run. The ‘high stakes’ involved only add on to the feelings of stress and anxiety, riddled with worry and concerns over whether one is indeed making the best choice. However, take heart in that any decision you make does not mean that your life is henceforth cast in stone! Life remains a moldable piece, and there remains room to adjust and change tracks, as you learn more about yourself and inch closer to designing the life and career you desire. This is in fact not uncommon, so much so that we have brought together three such stories of “Navigating Uncharted Paths, Alternative Pathways” at our upcoming Pazaar@319, in which you will hear from an East Asian Studies major who is now in the midst of equipping herself with programming language skills, a Pure Sciences major who somehow pivoted to Linguistics, and yet another individual who started out on the JC path but ended up making a detour and graduating from Polytechnic.
Challenging though the decision-making process may be, do note that once you have decided on your next step, it is only the beginning and not the end. At this point, you can slowly start thinking about easing into a new routine. As mentioned above, transitions bring about changes. Therefore, building up new routines can help you to better adapt to the changes around your future lifestyles.
For this, I spoke with my fellow trainee Jeremy, who had a few insights of his own to offer. To start with, he had enrolled in a residential college, an experience which can be rather daunting for some. Seeing as I myself had gone to live on my university’s campus (albeit only for a short while), I found myself agreeing with his sentiment of how living in a campus accommodation can be very exciting and provides you with the opportunity to “immerse yourself in an awesome community”, as he had put it. He then went on to share that having your friends also be your neighbors or even roommates and housemates meant that there was always somebody that you could share your feelings or concerns with.
However, he soon found that the intensity of living in a college community, where there was always an abundance of activities to partake in, did get to him. Even though it would have been easy to bury his fears and worries and feelings of overwhelm amidst the overall bustling atmosphere, he made it a point to, from time to time, decompress at home on the weekends and recover from all the excitement. He also got into the habit of playing badminton, going to the gym, and meditating in order to manage his emotions, especially in his last semester.
As Jeremy’s experience goes to show, even as you transit on to the next stage of your life, don’t forget to pay attention to how you are feeling, and notice how you are coping. Consider putting in place some routines and habits that can help you cope with the onslaught of changes and the new environment.
Keen to find out more about how to make changes midway and chart your own path? Or would you like to pick up more tips on navigating campus life from Jeremy? Book your ticket now for the next Pazaar@319 where six speakers will be there to encourage your heart as you go about “Navigating All The Feels”!
#BeBoldAtWork is a Design Your Workplace series that seeks to cover practical tips, stories and tools that would serve employees and employers to better design how you choose to think, feel and show up in workplaces so as to improve the performances of not only your organisations but also the lives of the people you work with.
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