University students are the students that continue their studies after high school, their average age range is between 18 to 27, normally. After getting their results for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia exams during their last year of high school, they will start making plans on furthering their studies, especially students that got good grades and got offered by the Universities. The Universities will typically do an event such as an education fair to promote courses and faculties to the students. For examples, if you would like to learn and study, maybe you see your future in the culinary field (bidang kulinari), where you will be taught about culinary arts (seni kulinari), you can ask any questions to the people that manage culinary arts courses (kursus seni kulinari) to the people who manage the booth. The people assigned to manage the booth to promote these courses are usually students who actually took the courses. Therefore, they would be well aware of the questions regarding the subjects and possibly deliver suitable answers for the students. But what a student does not realize is when once you be in the University, it can be challenging in so many ways for your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual.
One of the many main impacts that students will have during their studies is culture shock. Based on my understanding, culture shock is when one person has to change places with a very different environment to what they used to and they start to act or behave differently in terms of belief and lifestyle. Culture shock can happen to anyone, generally. But in this article, we are going to discuss culture shock regarding University students. Students are very young, and they are known for their wild and curious behaviors. By moving to different places, with a new environment and without the presence of their families. Some students would react differently. To the students who are generally independent and well behaved, they usually would not be affected by any disturbance and they would only focus on getting themselves good grades. But there are some students who would get badly affected by this. Mostly, the students who usually get affected are the students who hardly get to live certain ways with their parents. For example, when they are with their parents, they did not get the freedom to go out or hang out with their friends. With knowing that their parents will no longer be able to see or know their locations, most of these students will take these opportunities to be outside of the University especially on the weekends. Because of their determination, their curiosity to explore things makes it dangerous for their future. Especially when they got friends with a great influence on them. If they are going through culture shocks and are only distracted by minimal distractions like hanging out and changes of outfit, that is really not something to be scared of. This impact gets scary because it involves drugs, alcohol, and sexual stuff. Their curiosity in trying all these things will leave many bad effects on them as students. Their education will be put aside, and it will make it hard for them to focus on their studies or perform to get good grades. Moreover, if they get caught for drinking alcohol or smoking weeds, they will have to go through the discipline evaluation and they can get suspended. With these punishments, they would have a bad record in the University system that can affect their future applications for studies.
It is always good to have parents’ guidance and support during your childhood, to ensure your growth healthily, especially regarding your mental and your perspectives towards life. With a positive upbringing and healthy lifestyle, you are able to make rational decisions, especially when you are forced to be independent in a foreign environment. It is also a good option to consider and discuss some good Universities that take care of the students’ welfare. Some of the good universities include Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), University of Malaya (UM), Widad and etc. But in the end, it is up to us with making decisions regarding the path we take in our lives, and to make sure we get the best future that we deserve.
