METUlife

First of all, since this is my second year at METU and I am relatively more accustommed to the university atmosphere, it will be better if I answer the first question according to my first year experiences. When I came to METU for the first time, I realized that it is a competely different world. The campus was so big and I got lost at least four or five times; people seemed so arrogant and I could not make much friends, and there were just too much things that I had to take care of. For the first time in my life, I had to leave my house and do my jobs on my own. After a while, homesickness, bureaucratic procedures to be followed, dormitory life and feeling of loneliness and alienation started to suffocate me; even I hated the school. However, I had to get accustommed to my new life, so I tried to endure. Thankfully, my lessons were not difficult; I was in the preparation school. This left me some room. I met many people from different departments and backgrounds. As I talked to more people, I came to realize that eveybody had problems, missed their family and struggled to get accustommed to their new life. In the high school, all of my friends and other students had approximately the same way of thinking, living and even income level. Here in METU, I started to appreciate differences and gained a flexible point of view. I have learned that there is no exact right or exact wrong. I had many mistakes, but all these have contributed to my psychological, social and academic development. Additionally, I believe that this adaption process stil keeps and will keep going on,, because being a METU student means learning something new every day. In this process my family supports me greatly. Whenever I feel down, they try to console me and give advices and this really works. Also, my high school class was comprised of sixteen students and six of us, including me, came to METU. We try to see each other when we have time, and do our best to help each other. In the university life one can feel very lonely from time to time, so it is really reassuring to know that there are people caring about you. At present, I am trying to get accustomed to the academic understanding of our department as it is really different from that of the preparation school. In addition, as always, I miss my home and family. However, thankfully, my hometown, Kırıkkale, is really very close to Ankara, so I go there whenever I have the chance to. As for my thoughts about METU, I can say that it really meets, even exceeds, my expectations. My high school english teacher is a graduate of METU and she used to talk about it much, and I had visited it before making a choice, so I was well-informed about METU and did not experience much surprise in terms of its high quality academics. What I like most about METU is its free and tolerant environment, and of course its amazing nature. I think being a student of METU means being an open-minded and non-judgemental individual and having lots of big opportunities at our disposal to become a well- developed and productive member of our nation.