A technical study is no easy task. Certainly not if you combine it with one or more part-time jobs and/or hobbies. Or if you take extra courses. Still, it will be fine. Because you don't have to do it alone. Because sometimes you learn more during a good conversation than from three lectures.

Take Peter, TU/e alumnus, blind and involved in a student team that developed a navigation app for the blind and visually impaired. It didn't start on a whiteboard, but after other students saw him looking for it in a coffee shop. They were genuinely interested in what Peter was up against, literally and figuratively. A long and open conversation ensued with many questions. About finding your friends in a busy café. About knowing which way is 'forward' at a bus stop if you have turned around for a moment. 

The results were many times more useful than those from target group studies or surveys. Because they exposed the real problems, according to Peter. They led to the development of an app that actually worked. Because the makers dared to ask and continued to do so.

In a WhatsApp group with experts by experience, they didn’t ask: "What can we make?", but rather: "What do you need?". It wasn't about technology, it was about people. About designing with instead of for someone. That's where the spark starts. That's where progress begins. From connection. Not from the drawing board. 

Your education gives you knowledge. Experience teaches you how to internalize and apply it. Then you see that the world does not consist of models, but of people. People with experience, such as alumni, can help you with that. They can teach you how to deal with setbacks, learn to work together and help you grow from student to professional. 

So, what have you gotten yourself into? A journey of discovery full of encounters. And if you get stuck, find a fellow student or alumnus and have a cup of coffee together. Because sometimes a good conversation is all you need to move forward. Even if you don't know what 'forward' is. 

Edith Snelders Head of Office for Alumni Relations and University Fund Eindhoven. The views expressed in this column are her own.