Cruising through the life of a hero

Sobbing alone in your room, browsing through old friends albums, calling your mom every now and then are all signs of loneliness and difficulty making friends in 1st year. Desiree Schrillinger is a beautiful young woman that has managed to adapt and overcome loneliness in 1st year. She smiles as I enter her room and generously offers me coffee. She sits down and plays with her lighter as she patiently waits for me to start with the interview. Having a pre-talk before we start with the interview she constantly giggles and tells me about how hectic it is at Rhodes.
Before coming to Rhodes (Des) as she prefers to be called never used to drink and never imagined even for once that she will ever drink. One of her biggest challenges that she has faced since coming to Rhodes at the beginning of the year was making friends. “I used to think that I’m okay by myself until I realised that I was not that fine,” she says as she takes a sip of water. The loneliness of not knowing anyone made her want to fit in and what other way of fitting in at Rhodes besides drinking. The first time she put her hands on alcohol was during 1st year when she went out one evening. “I was so drunk I woke up in my own vomit,” she says blushing. The day after, Des was feeling sick and she confesses that she was not so proud about herself but she was not regretting it at all. “I believe that it has to happen to everyone. Everyone must have a day when they drink so much that they don’t even know their own name because you actually learn from it,” she says on a serious note. “I even called my mom the next morning and told her that I finally got drunk and she congratulated me but told me not to do it again,” she adds giggling.
Des thinks that besides battling to make friends every other think has gone quite well, she’s been able to handle academic stress and she’s been able to control her social life. “Other people take advantage of the freedom when they are in university and I have been able to stay disciplined and maintain my social life,” she says as she constantly brushes her hair with her hand.
Des only started being able to make friends in third term and she says that it was not as difficult as she thought it would be because “the other people are also in 1st year and they are just as eager to make friends.” She says that the medicine is to go out a little more and meet new people. She is quite pleased with the people that she has met and she thinks that they are “such good people”. Making new friends has actually had an impact in Des’ life. “I wish I had done it in 1st term,” she says. For her in order to overcome loneliness in1st year one need to go out more often and meet new people but at the same time have self-control, “have memorable fun” as she puts it. She believes that friends or the people around you play a significant role in one’s life because “it is the people around you that make you who you are”. “If at the end of the week you haven’t made time to sit down with your friends and have a drink with them you have failed,” she firmly believes. She has learned that one does not have to go out there and do things hat they would not usually do like having too much to drink. “It is better to find friends that will accept you for who you are,” she says.
Megan, one of Des’ newly found friends thinks that Des is an awesome person and she is easy to talk to. Chanel another friend of Des shouts from the other side of the room “ungirly” and everyone just burst out in laughter as Megan continues and say, “Oh Yes! She has the weirdest laugh”. Desiree’s friends say that in the few months that they’ve been with Des, they think she is a real friend the kind of person that you can talk to.