Artikel 9 Bahasa Inggris II

Why University Students Should Have Relationship
“I don’t know why you men are so in a rush in having girlfriends,” said a college friend to me several months ago, responding to the news that both my best friend and I have just officially announce our new relationship statuses.
“We the women are still relaxed by the way –no need to be so hasty,” she said while her best friend, who sat beside her, laughing and nodding in agreement.
Ironically, two months after that conversation, her friend –the very same friend who laughed and nodded in agreement to her statement– decided to betray her, said goodbye to single life, and finally had a boyfriend.
And in contrast to her argument, it seems to me that last-year university students are really hasty in having boyfriends or girlfriends now –at least from the trend which I have been observing right now. Funny that lately we are currently witnessing a sudden rise of friends who are changing their Facebook statuses from ‘single’ to ‘in a relationship’, especially some friends of mine who are currently last-year students in the university.
Yet those are the people who are making the right decision: Because university life, statistically speaking, offers you the biggest probability to have boyfriend or girlfriend.
In my faculty, for example, I have roughly 600 peers who are in the same year of study. Due to the fact that most of us had to take the same college classes for the first two years of study, or join some committees or student organizations together, it is almost impossible for me if I do not know each of them –or, at least, recognize their faces.
As I become older, my faculty welcomes 600 new people every year, which means throughout my four year in university I could establish a huge network consisting of 2400 people. That number only comprises same-year or younger students, and you could also add hundreds of senior students whom I could know from joining the same organizations or student committees.
Therefore, if you are an economics student in my university and want to have a girlfriend or boyfriend in your four-year period of studying there; you have approximately 3000 different options to be chosen.
But how about in workplace? Most likely there you would not encounter people as much as in the university, unless you are a government official (PNS) who works in a inefficiently big office consisting of 1000 staffs –half of which are already married. If you ask university seniors who have worked already in offices, you will realize that most of the workplaces only have 20-30 people in one department and, unfortunately, you will have to meet those same people everyday.
Also, let’s not forget the bitter truth that life in the office or workplace is, without doubt, more demanding and time-consuming. You definitely have less time to care about relationships if you decide to work in bank or public accountant firm, which will possibly strap you on your seats, in front of your computer screen, for 6-7 hours a day –leaving you with almost no time to meet new people outside of your working partners.
A friend of mine who had an intern with a prominent accounting firm shared to me how her 27-year-old senior there was very anxious because his parents already asked him to find a spouse and get married –while in fact that senior accountant was still single and had not even had a serious relationship yet.
I also befriend some senior people in mid 30s and 40s in Facebook who are currently still single because (maybe) they were too selective in their college times. Personally, I feel sympathy for them as I wonder how frustrating it must be when they have to listen to intense pressure from their parents and people around them, “Why are you still single? When will you get married?”
If you want to start looking for life partner, university life could be your best shot. This notion is especially supported by the fact that some friends of mine have parents who met and started dating since in university.
Of course, this does not mean that meeting your soulmate in working environment is practically impossible. I have known some college seniors of mine who had not had any relationship in university, yet when they entered working environment they finally got boyfriends or girlfriends. And there are some friends of mine whose parents met and started dating in workplace too.
Well, they are lucky to finally find their soulmates. How about if you are not that lucky, and your single life is aggravated with the reality that you work in a bank or accounting firm whose daily works require you to sit in front of the computer screen for 7 hours a week, and interacting with only 30 people in your office department?
If that time comes maybe you will regret that during your times in university you have been too relax and too selective by setting the standards way too high to have relationships.
You will regret that you used to have 3000 options to choose in university; while now you only have no more than 30 options in your workplace –half of which are perhaps already married.