the final solution

HappyCrackHead

ok, as scary and daunting as that title may be and the conitations which it carries besides i have quite an interesting idea.

people are always talking about how isolated they are/were in UCD. i know its a big place, i know its scary, i know about the cliques and the rest of the baggage. so heres my idea

Everyone from the UCD boards should, come september, make it there business to make one new friend. sounds pretty simple (unless u read any of Zane from MTV2's posts) (sorry zane, glad u dont remember who i am)

What you then do with ur new friend is bring them to the studentbar (if they drink even if they dont) for the meeting of the boardsies. just persuade em along. or introduce them to ur existing friends. my advice would be grab a first year, especially if ur a first year whos gonna be repeating next year (and there are some of you).

or next time ur sitting outside the arts building having a smoke and a coffee and you see that same person that you've seen a million times sitting out there not talking to anyone, just go over, offer em a smoke or a light or a chat.

the best way to tackle the cliques and the isolation and all the BS is simply to ignore it. just coz a girl is an oompa loompa doesnt make her a dense twit from D4 chances are she just has poor self esteem and has to fit in with the others. or if a guy wears lots of white make up and dyes his hair black regularly (i know im picking on very polar and very over used stereotypes).

and regardless of what year ur in, join a society and go to the meetings, and get involved. i personally was pissed off at the Sci-Fi soc because i expected to meet likeminded people all i found were rejects from a goth convention who had no interest in anyone beyond their little clique, which i thought was kinda funny considering that these people probably saw themselves as being "rejects" or "outcasts" and wouldnt throw me a bone. maybe i was too much of a "norm" for them.

i digress anyway

make one new friend and introduce em to ur existing or imaginary friends.

peace

kasintahan

HappyCrackHead wrote:

i personally was pissed off at the Sci-Fi soc because i expected to meet likeminded people all i found were rejects from a goth convention who had no interest in anyone beyond their little clique, which i thought was kinda funny considering that these people probably saw themselves as being "rejects" or "outcasts" and wouldnt throw me a bone. maybe i was too much of a "norm" for them.

They were cool enough.
They organised Ice Skating - I went.
Their coffee afternoons were a bit closed shop alright (okay, very closed shop), but they showed LOADs of films in the bin - so overall they were one of best soc's I joined.

HappyCrackHead

kasintahan wrote:

They were cool enough.
They organised Ice Skating - I went.
Their coffee afternoons were a bit closed shop alright (okay, very closed shop), but they showed LOADs of films in the bin - so overall they were one of best soc's I joined.

just shows some things arent for everyone. the movies in the bin was cool. since most experience i had were at the aformentioned coffee afternoons. considering most socs kinda sucked ass im not suprised sci fi was one of the best.

arbeitsscheuer

HappyCrackHead wrote:

considering most socs kinda sucked ass im not suprised sci fi was one of the best.

This statement says it all about UCD. People come on boards and testify as to the commonplace feeling of isolation and loneliness in Belfield, and every f**kin time this happens some gobsheen says "Oh I know, join a society, it loike, TOTALLY worked for me." And 90% of the time, it doesn't help.
Why? Because most of the socs suck ass, and "sci fi was one of the best" despite being pretty cr*p if we're being honest.

Zane talks a lot of balls, but he's right about one thing. If you try so hard to fit in and make friends at UCD, and all you get is this "no interest in anyone beyond their little clique" which is an attitude that's F**KIN EVERYWHERE MAN, then seriously - The problem ain't with you, it's with U C D.


Back On Topic: Yeah, I think Kev's final solution is implementable (I think that's a word). I'll call Reinhard... :eek:

Syth

I agree with SebTheBum about UCDs societies, for the size of UCD, they suck ass. (Then again, do we not have ourselfs blame? ). In comparision to other socs, SciFi did do a lot of events, and they were advertised decently enough.

It is weird that the societies are so poor, maybe it's because UCD is too big?

Jonny Arson

SebtheBum wrote:

Zane talks a lot of balls

Eh Seb would kindly elaborate on the ''balls'' that I apparently talk about.


HappyCrackHeads idead has to be applauded and wouldn't things be so much better if more people had that attitude. Now my difficulties settling into this place should not be judged on the whole of UCD. I've stated all the way that my problems stems from Arts so I'm not saying anything about any other faculties and what they are like but personally people from Science/Engineering are alot more friendly than Arts folk. In the last few weeks I have come across some current Arts students (2nd/3rd yr) and former Arts students and each of them have echoed the exact same things i've been saying all along about its people and the course. I just found out that my cousin who used to do Arts here quit because of similar reasons to me. This surely proves that there is something wrong with the environment in this course. In a college of this size it is sadly inevitable that people will be left out and feel isolated but people's attitudes to new faces compounds this. I echo HappyCrackHeads idea of helping people to settle in by being warm and friendly which doesn't take much but sadly most people aren't bothered.

Be open, warm, meet new faces and I guarantee you will feel alot better from it.

arbeitsscheuer

Zane from MTV2 wrote:

Eh Seb would kindly elaborate on the ''balls'' that I apparently talk about.

Eh.... Footballs of course!! Yeah, yeah, that's what I meant...



Kev's motto:
Make one new friend and introduce em to ur existing or imaginary friends.

Brilliant.

panda100

Happy crack heads idea is a great idea!But i had a great meeting with welfare officer for next year dan and he's got loads of plans to make ucd a more friendly place-like he;s going to organise weekly trips to bowling or cinema and things!which is great cos it gives an alternative nights entertainment to the d4-sex fuelled c+e night clubs out.

arbeitsscheuer

Brilliant, lookin forward to next year now.

Eh... Provided I pass the repeats, of course...