Maintaining Relationships

Being a college student at Missouri State is a different experience every single year; however, some of the same challenges do return each year, like maintaining relationships. Maintaining relationships can be the key to not only your happiness but also your college success. Relationships can create a support system and help you to have people to talk to or share your ups and downs with. College is usually the start to your independence and living on your own but communicating with people that are important to you is also a critical part of college life. In this week’s post, I’m going to give you my top three tips for maintaining relationships; these tips have helped me out over the last three years and could help you, too.

Advice/Tips For Maintaining Relationships

1. Take time to communicate

This is straight-forward–if you want to maintain your relationships, you have to make efforts to communicate. Communicating can take different forms so don’t just limit yourself to phone calls and text messages. Use new apps or go traditional and start sending weekly letters or packages. Whatever method(s) you choose, take the time to interact with your friends, classmates and others. College can get stressful and hectic so communicate when you can, even if it’s brief.

2. Keep Yourself Balanced

Joining an organization is a great way to create and maintain relationships on campus. Being involved with organizations will give you time to communicate with your friends and allow you the chance to experience new opportunities. MSU has plenty of organizations and groups that you might want to be a part of but be sure to balance your involvement in organizations with the rest of your schedule, your health and your assignments. Don’t spread yourself too thin; you can’t make plans, be a part of an organization or even call your parents if you are all over the place. Maintaining balance in your life will assist you in maintaining your relationships and will also benefit you in the long run with time management, self-sufficiency, productivity and even minimizing your stress levels.

3. Maintain a Relationship with Yourself

When I was putting together this post and asking others about their advice for maintaining relationships, I noticed that no one included themselves. Maintaining relationships also involves the relationship that you have with yourself. Other people in your life are important but you can’t forget about yourself. Make sure that you are having fun and taking care of yourself mentally and emotionally. Staying true to who you are and taking care of yourself should be a top priority.

Thoughts for This Week

It might seem like a small matter but maintaining relationships with the people that mean the most to you is one of the most important things that you can do for yourself and your family. I’m really close to my family so even when I’m away, I try my hardest to let them know what’s going on in my life and how I’m doing. When you’re in college, it’s true that you are on your own, but when you have established relationships, it doesn’t have to feel that way. If you don’t have a network of relationships yet, MSU has many ways to help you start building one: get involved on campus, talk with classmates before or after class, introduce yourself to the person next to you in line, and so on. Take every day one at a time and do what you can for yourself by finding and staying in touch with people that you can talk to.

So do me a favor this week: call your parents, friends, guardian, anybody.

Happy October!!!

~Alexandria

(Bio: I’m the middle child of seven kids in my immediate family. I’m currently a Senior Business major at Missouri State University.)