What is adaptability? From my point of view, adaptability is a skill that you can adjust effectively to a new environment and can deal with the changes. I have learned that adaptability is one of the important skills that you must have to easily handle new situations. I take the example from my own experiences which happen recently when I first get into a university that is different from my high school in many aspects including the different cultures, foods, friends, transportations, ways of communications and especially the environment. I lost and get discouraged because of the changes but I teach myself to learn to adapt to the environment to improve myself. Eventually, I can adapt successfully with university life even if it takes a long period and patient. It is because of the sensory adaptation in which the sensitivity in facing a new environment will decrease if we face the situation repeatedly (S.Feldman, 2020). That is how I realize that adaptability skill is very important to successfully adjust yourself without pressure.

            Next, I learned that adaptability can be developed by anyone. It depends on the people if they are willing to change or not which is called flexibility. The people with flexibility put an effort to teach themselves how to adapt to the new surroundings. These kinds of people always confidence in terms of doing anything even if they never did it before. They have many positive sides such as very tolerance with others, positive, polite and many else. For instance, they listen and consider their teammate’s opinion during discussion for group assignments. This example shows that these people are adaptable in which they are very tolerance and respect other people.

            Moreover, some people find it difficult to adjust themselves with the changes. It is because of the negative personality that causes them difficult to adapt to new people and surroundings. From my point of view based on what I have learned, to have a good relationship with everyone, we should have the personality that makes everyone feel comfortable to communicate with us. It is difficult to mingle with anyone if we are selfish, not consider other people, talk bluntly, unapproachable and many else. To adjust yourself, we must do the things that make us and other people feel comfortable, especially in a conversation. That is a good way if we want to teach ourselves to adjust to new people in terms of communications and relationships.

As we know, the university is one of the challenging phase in someone’s life in which we have to pay more attention to succeed. The ability to adapt to new people and the environment is a must when we get into university in to survive and also achieve the best academic performance. According to research, many barriers influence academic adaptability including personality and environment factors (Li Chen, 2014). So it depends on us whether we want to put an effort to have a good personality and also an effort to adapt to new changes.

Firstly, adaptability can be applied in university life by learning how to communicate well with other people. If we can communicate well with others, we can easily adapt to any different situation. Refer to research stated that students who have communication apprehension find it difficult to adapt to a new situation in which requires them to speak more and communication apprehension also correlates with academic performance (Brian D.Blume, 2011). So, to have the skill to communicate well, we have to be a good listener, well-spoken and also confident to speak. For example, friendly intonation makes you approachable and encourage people to speak openly to you.

Second, adaptability also can be applied in university life by learn and get used to working independently. University life is not the same as high school life. In high school, the teachers tend to help their students such as explain clearly to them about subtopics they do not understand and also teach how to do the homework. Compared to university life, there is no one can teach us properly on how to do something unless we put an effort to learn how to do it on ourselves. It is based on independent research and study in which we cannot depend on others to complete the task. By getting used to working independently, we can complete the tasks given effectively without pressure. Besides, we can improve ourselves in working independently after we graduated which is more challenging.

After that, adaptability by managing our time wisely so that we get enough time to study and complete the assignments given. Do not postpone the assignments and study. If we tend to postpone, it will decrease the quality of the work because we rush to complete the task when the deadline is near. Unconsciously, it will influence our academic performance because of our lack of adaptability in managing our time. It also can give negative effects on our mental health. As we know, university students have a very packed schedule caused them limited time to socialize, study and do the assignment. So, adaptability in managing our time wisely according to the situation is a must to survive successfully in university. For instance, know our limit when we hang out with friends.

Other than that, we ask for help if we need it. People who are adaptable in every kind of situation or environment will know how to survive especially in university life by asking. For example, if we do not know how to go to a certain place in university, we have to ask other people so that we will not get lost. Ask for help if we are struggling with assignments, study, and even financial problems. If we do not ask for help, it will get worse such as assignments will piling up and also we have the tendency to suffer mental problems including stress and even depression. Forget about the shyness and brave ourselves to ask for help. By asking, we will know how to adapt in every situation and it helps to communicate with others.

Moreover, people with high adaptability always think positive in every kind of situation. When we have a positive mindset, we can do anything with ease. Accept the change with open-minded. For instance, when we have to do a presentation that needs to deliver in English, we must have the mindset that we have to try to improve even though we not good in English. That shows how we teach ourselves to adapt to a stressful situation. Believe that we can do anything as long as we put any effort into it.

In conclusion, there is much useful information that I learned from this topic, adaptability. Adaptability is an important skill that we must have to successfully survive in university or even current life. Moreover, adaptability can be used also in the future and it is also important when we start getting into working life.

Reference

Brian D.Blume, T. T. (2011). Communication Apprehension:A Barrier to Student's Leadership, Adaptability and Multicultural Appreciation. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 158-172.

Li Chen, Y. L. (2014). A Research Review of Undergraduates Academic Adaptability. International Journal of Information Processing and Management(IJIPM), 88-94.

S.Feldman, R. (2020). Sensation and Perception. In R. S.Feldman, Psychology and Your Life (p. 89). New York: McGraw-Hill Education.