Oftentimes, I feel as though I am juggling an excessively large plate overflowing with schoolwork, friendships, commitments and more. As college students, this is relatively normal, as we are preoccupied with assessing our past, present and future at one time. Now, finals are approaching, it’s getting nice outside and we have spent the entire semester in a tightly bound routine comprised of five elements: think, eat, sleep, work and celebrate.
In college, a time of pressure, it is easy to get overwhelmed. Feelings of stress and conflicts with friends, family and roommates are anything but foreign. Pressure and stresses loom from any direction. At times, our innermost and most delicate issues haunt us, disrupting life’s charm.
To verbalize our feelings, emotions and concepts eases the difficulties and burdens. To find a friend or an alternative supportive measure brings comfort. Humans are innately drawn toward expressing our troubles through introspective thoughts and verbalizing our reflections.
Talking to someone – that could be the solution to balancing all that life tosses in our path. A supportive shoulder, a kind ear, an outside perspective can grant the relief or boost from whatever consumes our minds.
A genuine resource exists within our campus community. That resource, a completely confidential and student-run organization, embraces the call for help on any occasion. The HELP Center, a peer counseling and crisis intervention hotline, has been student-run for more than 30 years and strives on confidentiality, tolerance and peer perspectives.
Whether a caller needs to dispatch any stresses or consuming thoughts, seeks resources or aid in trying moments or just needs to let the mind talk, HELP Center counselors are trained to address any issue, whether big or small, crisis or not.
With extensive resources at our disposal, HELP Center volunteers are a tremendously supportive and dedicated assemblage of students who care about talking to you. It’s hard to open up to a stranger, yes, but a peer can earnestly care for your feelings, comfort and welfare. On a call, there is no pressure or making of judgments, just a counselor who wants to hear what the caller has to share.
The counselors at HELP Center are volunteers who juggle school and life’s issues, too. Volunteers go through comprehensive training because they must feel the concern and desire to serve their peers during weighty moments.
I hold the utmost confidence in this comforting and trusting peer resource. As volunteers, we are trained to listen to you and dedicated to providing this wonderful service to our peers.
The HELP Center’s services are geared toward the caller and the peer community. Volunteers maintain anonymity while providing a personal touch through the phone. All services are free. The caller drives the call, not the HELP Center representative.
Counselors are available by phone at (301) 314-HELP. Walk-in counseling and free pregnancy testing are also available. The HELP Center’s hours are 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Thursday, 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. to midnight Saturdays and Sundays.
On behalf of the HELP Center volunteers, I sincerely wish you all the best of luck on final exams and upcoming events and hope you have an enjoyable and relaxing summer.
Daniela Feldman is a sophomore journalism major and a volunteer at the HELP Center. She can be reached at danielaf@umd.edu.
