I threw a surprise birthday party for my best friend who struggles around her birthday. Every year she insists she doesn't want to celebrate and I respected that. But this year I thought I would try to make the day a little more special and invited a handful of our closest friends, cooked dinner, decorate with flowers and candles and told her to come over for dinner. That's what we did, we had dinner. We never mentioned her birthday, or sang, or have cake. We were just present for her and that was enough.

Something small but significant to me was: the other day I took a pilates class, and this girl was clearly very nervous. She was looking around, unsure about what to use, do... I very casually asked her if she needed anything and gave her a rundown of the class. Turns out she was an anxious first-timer. We ended up chatting before class and went for coffee after. Nothing special but as an ex anxious first-timer, I wish somebody had approached me and invited me to put my mat next to hers.

I would be sympathetic, understanding and genuine. I will not necessarily share my personal experience but I have a great overall understanding of the difficulties of "figuring it all out" as a 20 year old college student, especially in this digital age, where everyone seems to be doing perfectly fine and better. I would be gentle with my words and simply let students know, we are always available.