Year 12 students are coming to the end of their formal schooling. Many are having graduation ceremonies at the moment ahead of their final exams.
Over the next few months, some school leavers might find their friends are travelling overseas while others are beginning new jobs. Maybe some classmates are moving to different towns or cities to study or work.
As young people begin to move into this new life stage, they might feel their school friendships and wider networks are becoming more distant or disconnected. They may feel lost or lonely.
For me, the end of year 12 is when my social experiences opened up. I grew up in a small town, and moved to a city to go to university. I moved into some of the smaller residential colleges. So made stacks of new friends from there, and from uni itself. Many of my high-school friends overall were not great people. (It wasn’t obvious at the time, but in hindsight there was a lot of racism, for example.) So I was happy to just leave all that behind.
Anyway, one thing I find kind of sad is that basically all the small residential colleges are gone now, and a large proportion of university students don’t physically go to classes - and so those social experiences that I enjoyed won’t be available for young people today. They’ll still get something, but I can appreciate that the specter of loneliness may indeed loom large.
Thank you for sharing.
Many, many decades ago when I went to uni, like you, my world opened up. Uni life was colourful, lots of people on campus and a much more optimistic time. I didn’t live in a college but in a share flat with another student. There was so much happening on campus you could get involved in outside of lectures and tutes. It was so exciting coming out of school and meeting people of all ages and backgrounds. Rents were cheap and uni was free under Whitlam. I worked two nights a week in a restaurant and that was enough to cover all my costs.
By comparison, when my son went to uni in the 2010s, uni life was a lot less social. In fact, it seemed to me to be dour and utilitarian and he didn’t have much time to do any other activities (not that there were that many on offer). And now, as you say, uni seems to have lost even more social life as students do more work online.
When I see how dysfunctional and dehumanised society is becoming, no wonder loneliness, alienation and mental health challenges are increasing among young people. I don’t think enough preventative action is being taken.
School sucked. It was not cool to be into computers in the 80’s, and I was small on top of that. I was bullied, ostracised, a social pariah. Leaving school and never seeing any of those people again was a net-positive in my life. I feel a little bad for people who peak in High School. I expect that for most kids, whatever follows high school is better. Even today.
