After meeting a multitude of different types of people at college, I have come to recognize that most of them are scared to ask for help from others. For me, personally, this was never difficult. I tend to be pretty lazy and don’t have a problem asking someone to help me hang up the posters in my room or to give me advice on a problem I’m having. However, I’ve noticed that a lot of people don’t ask for help past trivial things like, “Can you hold the door for me?” or “Can you grab my keys? My hands are full.”
Most of the time, people don’t want to inconvenience others so they just try to deal with their problems on their own. However, that’s not what life was made for. We aren’t supposed to be completely detached beings that just walk into each other sometimes; as human beings, we are made to interact and flourish with one another. If we were only meant to discuss insignificant, ordinary things with one another, then we wouldn’t have philosophy, mathematics, or science. People are meant to discover things with one another; no one is expected to go through life alone.
Realizing you need help is half the battle; asking for it is the other half. Some people don’t think they need help because they’ve gone through it before- whatever “it” may be. Even the type of help someone can ask for varies by person. One person might think a breakup is easy-peasy and can figure it out on their own but could have trouble balancing school and other responsibilities. Instead of being too nervous to ask their roommate to clean the room so they can work on a big project, they just stay up until three am doing work and cleaning. On the other hand, some people have no problem asking for help with emotional events but don’t want to inconvenience people when it comes to doing tasks. In both situations, asking for help is necessary.
Asking for help, with anything in life, does not mean that you are admitting defeat. In fact, it means just the opposite; it shows that you are willing to do whatever it takes to do something, even if it means asking someone else for help. It doesn’t make you weak, difficult, needy, or broken. Needing help is a natural part of life, and you have to ask for it. Your roommate isn’t just going to magically know that you’ve got too much school work to cook dinner tonight, and your friends aren’t just going to stumble upon the fact that you need someone to talk to. Being brave enough to ask for help is a hard, but beneficial, battle.
At the end of the day, though, we must help one another and ask for help. You should ask for help from your friends and family because that’s what they're there for; they would not want to see you struggle knowing there was something they could do to make it easier. So do something crazy this week and ask someone to help you when you need it. It will make a world of a difference.
