In Malaysia, every student that has finished their secondary school will have the choice of their life whether to continue their studies or to earn some money first before continuing studies. Or maybe there are some students that have their own life plan that they have decided after finishing secondary school. Other than that, they also have to wait for their SPM results to be announced before they can continue their studies. This is because their SPM results will determine which kind of university that they can go to continue their studies. It is why SPM is really important for these students as it may affect their own life.
In university, there will be many types of people with different backgrounds. For example, there might be some students that are from a rich family or maybe one of their family members is a celebrity or famous person and many more. As for personalities, there might be some students that are funny, shy, extroverted, introverted, and so on. In this article, I am going to talk about a person with one personality that some people might have in them which is introverted. What do introvert means? To make it simple, an introvert is a person that has a shy personality and they are comfortable to be alone by themselves. An introvert is often quiet and they don’t talk much, especially having a conversation because they have trouble being around many people. So, this makes me wonder about how introverted students went through their studies in their universities.
To find out what are the issues that are faced by introverted students in Malaysian universities, I had an interview with my friend, Muhammad Nabil which is one of my friends that have an introverted personality. He is currently studying at Uitm Puncak Perdana and he has told me on how it is like to be an introverted student in university. There are several issues that he has faced during his studies at the university. Let’s take a look at it one by one.
1. Having trouble making friends with other people
One of the main issues that introverted students have to deal with is making friends. To other people, it might seem weird because making friends is not that hard. You just talk to them and get to know each other. But not for introverted people where they find it really hard to talk with other people because they feel so shy and afraid that they might say something that was not supposed to be said to other people. In the end, they prefer to not talk to other people and stay alone by themselves. In my interview, my friend said that the first time he entered the university, he didn’t talk too much with other people. Also, he always arrives early to the classroom where the classroom was still empty. This is because he wants to avoid grabbing everyone’s attention when he enters the classroom. It makes him feel uneasy and uncomfortable when many people are looking at him. This is why introverted people usually did not have many friends in their life. Sometimes, they wait for someone to start a conversation with them so that they can get along with them easily. If not, they just remain quiet and do not talk to other people in the classroom.
2. Problems in working with other people
When studying at university, there will be some assignments that students need to do in a group. It is because some of the assignments can not be done by one person only because in those assignments, each person in the team members will be taking part to finish it. This is when it becomes a problem for the introverted students where they have that feeling where they are afraid to talk or start a conversation with other people. This means that it is also hard for them to make a group for their assignments because it is hard for them to talk with other people, even their own classmates. From my interview, my friend said that because he felt very shy to talk with his classmates, he just remained quiet and waited for his classmates to pick him to become for the group assignment. If there is nobody that wants to pick him, then he will start to make a move and talk with other people to make a group. Because of this, he sometimes will keep thinking whether his classmates are going to pick him for the group assignments or not and that thing makes him a bit worried as it will affect his studies.
3. Problems with self mental and psychological health
Probably most introverted people have their own mental or psychological issues that might have caused trouble for them. This is because they are overly sensitive with their surroundings that make them overthink about everything. It’s like they have that feeling where other people will judge them if they do something that they think is weird to the other people. Besides, other people don’t even think about that. It’s just in their mind and that is what makes them become an introverted person. Other than that, some introverted people may have some trust issues with people around them. They tend to have a bad impression of other people around them. Just like my friend where he has a stigma that he always has a doubt on people when he first meeting with them. He said he is not comfortable with his classmates at first because he has that uneasy feeling when he is around his classmates. It is why he did not have many friends at the university at first. Again, it is all in his mind because he has that feeling that people will not like him and think he is a nerd and weird person.
4. Physical interaction with other people
Have we ever noticed that introverted people are rarely making a physical interaction with other people? Well, it is because they felt uncomfortable to make skin contact with other people and they thought that it would be disturbing to have a physical interaction with other people. My friend said in his interview that the first time he enters the university, he rarely makes a physical interaction with other people around him like shaking hands, holding hands, and so on. He said that he will feel awkward to make friendly contact with the people that just met. But, as time goes by, he has become more comfortable with people around him and he can accept physical contact with his friends which is very good for him.
5. Pressure or stress issues
Being an introverted student at the university, it must be really challenging to survive and go through their studies there. Because of this, they might feel really stressed and felt the pressure during their studies at the university. For example, they might get stressed because they thought that why is it so hard to talk with other people. Due to this, they get overthinking and their confidence level is decreasing even more. This is why introverted people usually suffer from depression. Other than that, they normally find a way to release their stress by themselves like watching movies or funny videos, playing games, listening to music, and many more. If we look at other students, the way they release their stress is by spending some time with their friends to have a talk maybe sharing stories or talk about each other problems. But my friend said that he releases his stress by himself which is he finds a way or anything that he can do to release his stress. Since he did not have that many friends at first, that is why he just spends most of his time by himself.
So, these are the issues that my friend has faced during his studies at the university. Before he enters his studies at the university, he said that he felt worried about how he can go through his studies and how he is going to communicate and make friends with other people there. But eventually, he can adapt to the surroundings at his university and he was comfortable talking with other people and his classmates which is good for him. So the conclusion is there are some introverted people that even though they are shy to talk with other people, but they still can get comfortable with other people and make friends with them. But, there are some introverted people that are very sensitive that they cannot approach or talk with other people. This can be a big problem because as a student, you have to communicate and interact with a lot of people during your studies. I hope that introverted students can try to break the ice between themselves and other people so that they can have an interaction with other people. This will make it easier for them to do their work or assignment at the university.
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