Hollie Rodriguez - This is the sound of science on WNIJ. I'm Hollie, and today I'm joined by Dr. Suzanne Degges-White chair and professor of counseling and higher education here at NIU. So, I wanted to ask what are you currently working on and what are you excited about?
Suzanne Degges-White - You know I'm always excited about the research I do because it's all about friendships and relationships. So, some of the research I'm doing right now involves checking out with folks, how have your relationships changed. Whether it's friendships, work relationships or relationships with significant others because a lot of relationships took a beating during the pandemic and other relationships, we've gotten a lot stronger. And one of the interesting findings that keeps bubbling up for me is that a lot of people realize how close they are to their work friends. They had to keep in the trenches if they're essential workers and keep showing up slogging away day after day during the pandemic. Any kind of friendship built in the trenches are going to get strengthened. Other people realize that they're closer to people at work through zoom calls where they had work meetings, and so there are reasons to bring them together and a lot of effort made to help people feel connected. And some friendships have fallen away so there's been some shifts in relationships so it's a lot of fun to see how relationships are going to look in the next few years.
Hollie Rodriguez - It sounds like that's going to have a huge impact. Do you have an overall goal that you're heading towards with your research?
Suzanne Degges-White - Well the thing I want to show most is how relationships and friendships are really dynamic. They can stretch and they can grow, they can be flexible, but also that when we need friends in our lives this is easy to reach out and start new friendships as it is to kind of dig back up through old friendships that didn't work out. So, I want people to feel comfortable and confident in their ability to build new friendships throughout life as well as kind of maintain; make sure they maintain the ones that have meaning — but not to feel bad about those relationships that have kind of evaporated over time because not every friendship is going to last forever, and it's OK because we always have new friends to make.
Hollie Rodriguez - Well here's to making new friends. Thank you so much for joining us, this was The Sound of Science on WNIJ.
Suzanna Degges-White - Where you learn something new every day.
