Challenges I encountered at Addis Ababa University

Addis Ababa University is the first ranked University in Ethiopia. As the result many students of
the county highly yarn to join it. Truly speaking, I was one of those students, dreaming to learn
and be graduated from the university. Fortunately, my dream of joining it was realized when I
joined it in 2021. Although I was very lucky to become one of the university’s students and
experienced strong feeling of happiness to see my dreams came into effect, my campus life was
full of terrible and hardships. Among those terrible and hardships, the following listed were the
major ones.

One of the challenges that I experienced was acute feeling of loneliness. It occurred to me when I
left my home and loved ones behind for an unprecedented period of time. Since I was away
from the things and people I am accustomed to, strong feeling of isolation was able to humiliate
the overall wellbeing of my mindset when I joined Addis Ababa University in 2021. Thus, It
could suffer me in many ways, for examples, in the form of depression, anxiety, instability and
so forth. As a result, my new surrounding, new residence and new food tended to cause at me
those states.

My second challenge was peer pressure. As a matter of fact, when you moved from one
place,with which you were familiar, to a new environment you might get tremendous difficulties
in finding good friends. What I encountered at Addis Ababa University is not different from this.
As I joined the university, I experienced a wide range of problems regarding friendship. For
example, I got close to many students, thinking them as a loyal and friends. However, they
proved to be snake in the grass in the long course of time, pushing me to unnecessary and bad
habits.

Another challenge that faced me was chronic stress which arises from the bulky course work and
the limited time provided to expectations. I was always striving to maintain good grades and to
meet my parents expectations. In this regard, Stress can be induced by increased competition,
academic pressure, procrastination, choosing majors and so forth. Consequently, In order to
accomplish my goal, I went through ups and downs which might result in my being stressed
and burnout.

Generally putting, in university we might embark on a self discovery journey which can help us
decide what we want to do in life. This process can be fruitful; however, it can be a challenging
process to many students. Although, as students, we face countless hurdles in university, we
should be aware of the fact that these obstacles are there to only strengthen us further and that
they aid our overall development.

Written by: Tofik Habib

February, 2023