Must-have friends to survive university

Let me refresh your memory. We’ve all been there. It’s 10:43 PM. Your assignment is due at midnight. Forget starting; you don’t even know what the assignment is. Your laptop battery is at seven percent, and so is your will to complete your degree.

You are not alone.

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In many cases, the difference between people who thrive and people who spend four years sobbing in bathroom stalls and running around like a headless chicken is not talent or hard work. It’s who they know.

Somewhere across campus, there are very specific people who could save your entire academic career. Here are the five types of friends you need to lock in posthaste.

The parent

The parent-type friend sets alarms to wake you up for your morning classes. When you show up to class without pen or paper, they dutifully tear off pages from their own notebook and hand over spare pens. They will also provide scales, compasses, pencils, erasers, graph paper, A4 sheets, and printed datasheets during labs. These friends meticulously take notes and share them.

They always carry a spare charger and a power bank for every device ever manufactured and are also the designated water bottle person. They remember submission deadlines for you when you don’t even remember what day of the week it is. They are also the type of friend who will show up with medicine when you’re sick. They also oversee the cooking and cleaning on behalf of their roommates.

Love them and appreciate them. Bribe them with a treat every once in a while. After all, they are the reason you may graduate.

The chill one

You won’t ever see them in class; their attendance is maintained through proxies. You won’t ever see them studying at any point during the entire semester. Yet, they will have a perfect GPA.

Their last-minute suggestions and explanations fifteen minutes before the exam will be more effective than a semester’s worth of lectures. These people possess something beyond intelligence; it’s supernatural instinct and intuition. To be honest, it is a bit suspicious, but the results are undeniable.

Ignore them at your own peril.

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The realist senior

If you need a mentor who’s already been chewed up and spit out by the system, find yourself a cynical senior.

This person has seen things. They won’t sugarcoat anything. They’ll tell you which faculty members are actually nice and which ones are misanthropes who fail most of the class out of spite.

These seniors will also share cheap transport routes that also shave 20 minutes off your commute. They’ll tell you what to print and where to print it and show you to the nearest second-hand bookstores. They’ll even point out discount stores and free food events. More importantly, they’ll know which events are worth attending and which ones lure you in with the promise of snacks, only to make you sit through a two-hour seminar for a 10-taka muffin.

The queen bee

This individual, apparently, belongs to every organisation on campus. Walk with them for 10 minutes, and at least 17 people will stop by to engage in polite small talk. Even students from other departments will cross roads just to fist-bump them.

If you see them posting club announcements all day, every day, don’t get all judgy and think that they’re wasting time. When the internship season arrives, you’ll find out that they know the dean, the founder, five alumni, two recruiters, and over half the city.

Being friends with them opens doors and makes people more helpful.

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Making the most of your undergrad life

The BFF

University friends can never replace childhood friends. Your childhood friends met you before you were a complete person.

But, by now, you have opinions, tastes, a sense of humour, and a personality—however questionable they may be. So, you will need to find your platonic soulmate at university. Someone who gets you for who you are and makes you feel less strange.

Years later, you won’t remember your attendance percentage or your score on a midterm exam. You’ll remember the kindness—shared meals, shared notes, shared panic before deadlines, and shared laughs when everything went wrong.