LOL, perhaps in common, retrospectively speaking. Otherwise people are people--wherever or whatever point through which they are moving. Even as a very young 20 year old, I got along well with my older patients. I think people can feel if you really take an interest in them as human beings.
It's not about being at the same place in life as they are. That ship has sailed, so to speak. It's just about respecting and connecting and having empathy for others--and also getting the job done. Even if you are only a little bit older than another person, in general, anything that smacks of an autocratic approach doesn't generally work--unless you're in the military--and the whole system is generally geared that way. Best you can do is to try to positively influence and just be who you are. . .and listen a lot.
Geez, those group projects in university classes, well, people were easily put in diverse groups of people. And sometimes it sucked a bit b/c some folks were tripping with control issues and then others just didn't care as much. At the end of the day, you suck it up, and if it means you do more of the work in order to get an A, that's what you end up doing--even if others in the group don't really deserve the A. This, however, gets tougher when working in the clinical end of things though--a lot stickier.
But no. I'm not going out to bars with these people in order to hook up with someone. LOL. Course, I have never been that kind of person anyway. Yea. I'll go out and have a drink with the group; but that it's not about hooking up for me, like it may be with some of them. Sometimes you send back drinks, and other times, you smile and nod "Thank you," and then give the drink to someone else out with you. Eh, that part always seemed creepy to me. But I did marry at a very young age, and I couldn't have found a better person to be with if I had tried to work it out for myself.
One thing may be helpful if you are nontrad. That is, if you know how to cook and are willing to share for study events, etc.
Just like in adult study of anything, perhaps a few people will become somewhat more than casual friends, and there are others with whom you will work and go through the process, but you won't stay tightly connected. That's just how life moves.
