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Latwell Nyangu-Youth Interactive Writer

Human beings have a wavy nature and their moods change from time to time. Starting from childhood and throughout life, many things happen. 

During the early years of life, we copy others including our parents as we grow. Going to college is a profound change, and even an adventure for some. Students are likely to face a few hurdles as they adjust. As they set new priorities or adopt different lifestyles, it opens them up to make new friends, and that may make you go along with things you wouldn’t otherwise.

First thing at college is to look for connections, and some of them will be good fits for you. Most of us go with the first people we meet, especially if they seem pushy or want to do things that don’t seem right to you. Look for people with whom you share interests and where you have more in common.

We learn both bad and good habits at college. Students tend to rely more on bad ones than good ones. But the effect of bad company on life and study is severe. There are many minor and major effects of it.

Bad company may ruin a student’ chances of holding important positions in the future. 

This is because, those who witness his or her behaviour at school will always be there to expose his or her misdemeanor, thus keeping bad company ‘kills’!

Amongst the most frustrating and painful things for any parents is seeing their teens in bad company and spoiling their life! Few of the options include running with the wrong crowd, avoiding homework, bunking school, taking drugs, as well as engaging in abnormal behaviour.

Personally, my life at learning institutions has been easy since I allowed myself to be associated with almost everyone but I was always seen walking alone.

Such a character had always left many skeptical of what kind of a company I am, even now at work, it remains a mystery.

Bad company inevitably does not not only refer to a person’s behaviour, but the fundamental personality of a person. As most students spend the majority of their time with their friends, it becomes important to recognise and distinguish between the good and the bad company.

Parents hardly spend some hours of the day with their children. Their playmates and classmates are their whole day companions, therefore, it is very important that your child has the right kind of friends because the bad company of children can create many problems. 

What’s so nerve-wrecking about getting into college? It’s when we have to make new friends and socialise with people whom we have never met before. Building new relationships in college can be such an energy drainer for some, but in order to make our life better, we have to start making good connections with good people.

Being able to click with someone so easily is such a blessing. Once we get into college, we will meet different sorts of people, even those we have never encountered during our school life. You would be surprised!

Building a new trust takes time, and we want to make sure the persons who can get into our circle are only the ones we can get along with.

College life introduces us to group assignments where we have to do and divide every task accordingly. Our classmates for every class or course in college are not the same, therefore, the likelihood for us to meet new people every year is high.

IT is sad to note that many young ones in colleges today go out with groups that turn out to change their good destiny.

Allow me to quote a bible verse in 1 Corinthians 15:33 “Do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character”. Biblical challenges help us to consider the company we keep, and their influence on our character. Human nature is to reflect the behaviour of those we spend the most time with. 

This doesn’t mean one must  keep company with like-minded people, alone. Show me your friend and I will tell you who you truly are. 

A popular proverb also supports this statement when it says: “Birds of the same feathers flock together.”

One important cornerstone that needs individual contribution is the choice and not force.

Today, in most schools, students select companies without weighing the social, political, economic and educational gains of such relationships.  They end up regretting their actions. Some of them start ‘games’ whose end they do not know. Usually, they end in shame which may be difficult to remedy. Examples abound in society where students from good homes turned to wolves with human skin.

A popular adage says, bad company corrupts a good life. Keeping bad company in schools in general, can never bear any good fruit; rather, it produces bad and spoiled fruits. 

The reason for  the bad company may be that they are from a deprived background or that they are just experimental characters, involved in behaviour such as smoking, drug smuggling, raping, promiscuity, stealing et cetera.

Bad company in schools and colleges may also be in the form of someone involved in examination misconduct.  Reasons for keeping  bad company is also caused by inability to provide for the basic material needs, pushing some to join cultic associations to satisfy their basic needs. Another cause of keeping bad company is that someone can join such company(whether individual or group), just for protection. In some cases it may be a result of influence of parents who are addicted to smoking, drinking or taking hard drugs.

It causes an unimaginable loss of focus in the primary aim of going to school. This itself has the tendency to scuttle one’s focus. Most times, the bad company yields very strong influence on the personality, dignity, state, and image of students.

Keeping bad company leads to the loss of moral values, with a tendency to worsen the personality even after leaving school. Further, bad company can bring about havoc e.g. mental and psychological problems for  the student. Indeed, several students have become patients in psychiatric hospitals across the world on account of being addicted to hard drugs. Usually, it takes medical and spiritual warfare to help them.

Sadly, criminal activities that are very rampant in schools today got their roots from bad associations.

Cheerio to good company!