U Thrive

U Thrive explores the topic of college life and offers practical advice on how to diminish stress and anxiety from exams, deadlines, unfitting roommates, while thriving in the campus, academic life, and creating meaningful experiences.

When you engage with others and create a network of your own, it is important to remark yourself as a reliable, skilled individual when it comes to certain subjects and domains. This is particularly important as your colleagues will become the future professionals of tomorrow, and so will you.

If you’re still unsure about what your talents are, try to practice some soul-searching to find that out. Deep inside, we all know what we love to do and what we don’t, what are the areas in which we excel, and what is that one activity that we could spend hours doing without noticing how time flies.

Once you discover your strengths, center your activities around them. This way, you will not only improve them but find an area that feels naturally pleasant for you and that can bring you happiness. However, don’t fall into the trap that certain talents and activities are better than others just because they’re more popular.

Sports like baseball, football, and basketball, or classes such as law, finance, or engineering are sometimes sought after by unpassionate people. They’re the ones who follow predefined life patterns in order to reach conventional success. Avoid signing up for activities that don’t contribute to the person you want to become in the future.

Moreover, identify your personal characteristics and native strengths to make use of them and build your personality. For example, if you’re a fast learner and a determined person, take more classes or sign up for a side gig.  If you’re an extrovert, go for an acting class or try forming a group of people around you.

Being an inflexible person, unable to adapt to change, and receiving criticism is a very harmful approach to life in the long run. Not only will it narrow your circle of friends and acquaintances, but it will also inhibit your personal growth and creativity skills. In college, it is critical to filter your information and circle of friends properly. For that, you have to keep opening yourself up to new people and get out of your comfort zone. So you get accustomed to dealing with unknown situations and learning how to react to them. Moreover, by doing this you push yourself to grow and absorb new information, which will help you later on. Indeed, when getting out of your comfort zone, you may not succeed at first when it comes to people’s impressions of you. Not to worry! No one is an expert at first. Listen…