By Aditya Acharya | Photo from SOS Help Facebook Page
This post is intended for friends who come to AgroParisTech, France for their second year studies.
Unexpected things can happen anytime. Just like the #Coronavirus pandemic. Not everyone might get overwhelmed by such situations, but the way we perceive and react to things around us are different. And it is not only those big, global crises that affect us, but there might be our personal stuffs that could seem non-significant for anyone else but it might be making a huge impact in our lives. Because, each of us has our own nature and our way of perceiving things. Living in a place with a totally new culture, getting separated with those friends from the first year, not being able to talk to family members just at the time you feel like because of the time zone differences, having to deal with administrative processess, not being able to speak the language everybody speaks around all the time, and taking care of your studies at the same time! This might sound very trivial for someone, but if you were already dealing with some problems, these things will add up and make you feel more stressed, lonely, anxious, and so on. And if situations like that from the coronavirus come up, you will see more anxious/scared people instead of finding more cheerful people.
This is when you will need to take care of your mental health before it starts deteriorating.
First, you can always write an email or call the coordinator or any other teachers and tell if you are struggling with something. They are always ready to help you. Believe me. The coordinators and some of the teachers are the most awesome people I have ever met. All you need is to reach to them.
And, here is the main purpose of writing this post. If you have (private) problems that you do not feel like sharing with teachers or somebody you see around frequently, or if you think nobody understands your problem, try this! I believe, this WILL help. [Luckily I did not reach to a level that I had to call them. So, I cannot tell you the experience of talking to them. But based on the stories, comments from those who called, I believe it will be very helpful for you if you are struggling mentally]
You can find people who had/have similar feelings as you, here:
SOS Help France
โFacebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/soshelpfrance/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SOSHelpline
Website: https://www.soshelpline.org/
Samaritans (UK based, but things they share will be helpful, and you can write email even if you cannot call)
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/samaritanscharity/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/samaritans
Website: https://www.samaritans.org/
Take care of your mental health, and best wishes for your studies too. And, if you ever feel like being in contact with us, click here and write your message. It does not have to be anything great. Getting your simple message will make us remind our/my time in the same program that was sooooo nice; it will obviously bring a big smile in our/my faces. ๐
A memory lane 