Mara Goldstein (C’27) is a Georgetown Storyteller and a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences from Pearl City, Hawai’i studying justice & peace studies and English.
Socializing can be scary and draining. Living on a small campus like Georgetown, the tight-knit community can be both uplifting and overwhelming. What can you do on campus when you’re overstimulated? How do we deal with the constant pressure of being around other people?
I’m not always the most outgoing person. Most of the time, I feel socially awkward and out of place. I like to spend time with people, but I also like to be alone sometimes. Here are my favorite ways to recharge when life is overwhelming.
Find and Create Your Own Spaces on Campus
You may have to room with another person, but there are so many spaces on campus to be alone! My favorite is the Office of Student Equity and Inclusion’s (OSEI) sensory room, a room beneath New South where any student can choose to be alone when they’re overstimulated. There are several sensory tools along the walls and the lighting can be adjusted to the student’s wishes. My favorite way to use the sensory room is to lie in the beanbag chairs with a stuffed animal and stare at the dark ceiling until I feel calmer. The space is open on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
When the sensory room isn’t available, I like to find spaces that people don’t frequent. As an English major, I look for books to ground me. Sometimes I’ll wander through the stacks of books in Lauinger Library, or head to the English and philosophy department offices after hours. There are always free books, and sometimes a quiet moment alone there even helps me to focus on my studies!
An avid people-watcher, I also love to sit in front of White-Gravenor, either at the feet of the St. Ignatius statue or next to the koi pond. I feel invisible to passersby when I’m sitting on the steps there, and I’ve spent many moments of reflection there during the daytime and late at night when fewer people are around and the world is quiet.
Solo Dates
College students are short on time, but when you’re free, it’s easy to feel lonely. The best thing to do with a gap in your schedule is to take some time for yourself and enjoy a solo date! Georgetown and downtown D.C. offer many opportunities to explore new things alone and have time to reflect. I personally feel most comfortable when I’m alone amid a crowd of people I don’t know, and the city is perfect for that.
Georgetown’s shuttles make the metro more accessible and DC’s public transportation system makes exploration easy! I like to take the metro to Rosslyn, then head to the National Mall, where several museums line up in a row. My favorite museum so far has been the National Gallery of Art, and I often go there alone. Every time I go, I learn and think about something new! Another great place to be alone is the U.S. Botanic Garden, where the recreations of different climates can be refreshing, especially when I want to reconnect with nature.
How to Make Friends and Community as an Introvert
One of the hardest parts of college is establishing and maintaining friendships. As an introvert, it’s especially hard to put yourself out there. During my freshman year at Georgetown, I often felt out of place and odd because I hadn’t made close friends yet. I’ve made friends in a number of ways, and the closest friends I have always surprise me because I never would have expected to find them so randomly or easily. Some people become friends because one person had the courage to ask to sit at my table during finals week, or simply because we have the same name.
My best friend and I met in our “Problem of God” class during our fall semester freshman year. We would run into each other on the way to class and strike up a conversation with each other, until we both realized that we clicked as friends. We started to hang out every day, connecting first on those walks to class, then studying together and finally doing anything we wanted together.
Some of my easiest and closest friendships have come out of shared classes in which our class discussions led to close friendships outside of class. Because Georgetown is small, taking multiple classes with the same person is another way I’ve made close friends. Even though our friendship is borne out of class, getting closer outside of class helps me feel more connected to the community.
The main way that Georgetown students make friends is through clubs. There are clubs for everything at Georgetown, and, contrary to popular belief, not every club requires an application. Because I enjoy being creative, I joined creative groups that are open to everyone without an application. As an Asian American, joining affinity groups has helped me to find other people with some of the same lived experiences that I have. Last year, I even seized the opportunity to go to the East Coast Asian American Student Union conference on a whim and found some close friends as we attended workshops and traveled together. Through the clubs I’ve become a part of, I’ve found most of my closest friends and a tight community to catch me when I fall.
Making friends seems difficult at first, but Georgetown provides several opportunities for friendships to naturally develop. Don’t be afraid to join someone you know in the dining hall or sit next to someone studying!
College can be scary and overwhelming, but with Georgetown’s resources, it’s easy to find a place within the community! Even with my introverted tendencies, I’ve easily found the best ways for me to rest and recharge when I get overstimulated.
