Making Friends in College

     Today, I'm officially entering a new chapter in my life. College! Right off the bat, here's one thing to absolutely remember-- if you're going to college anywhere more southern or northern than your hometown, pack clothes intelligently. I've been here for four days and I'm already regretting not investing in more sweaters and underlayers. (And yet, somehow, there are students walking in shorts and t-shirts- in fifty-degree weather!) Despite the frigid weather (hyperbole), I have actually managed to do some general learning and sightseeing. 

    My largest folly, as per usual, has been socialising. I am awful at talking to people in a public setting, and it's incredibly difficult to make friends when you actually have no-one else. Well, there are a few kids that graduated with me, but none that I've ever been friends with. Gratefully, they all just seem to blend into the background with the rest of the kids I don't know. It's an odd experience, every time I come to a new place and make new friends. As a kid, believe it or not, I was incredibly friendly and loud at school. In elementary school, I was a menace to my teachers. I'm unsure whether those reports ever actually went home to my parents, though...

    In middle school, I wandered into the odd problem of quarantine. Having people I thought were friends, only to have them not really be my friends anymore, just because I was at home behind a screen while they all went to school. In high school, while it was the same town, I still ran into the problem. One thing I will find insane for the rest of my life is how one of my best friends is still my best friend, even after meeting in Freshman year of ninth grade in theater! (Really, you should meet her. She's wonderful. I love her.) My other best friend, I met in a sophomore year civics class. Probably the worst place I could make friends, as I was failing the class, but live and learn. She joined theater that year, and it was so wonderful to see people I knew doing the things I loved. Of course, this was pre-best-friendship.

    What I find even crazier than that, however, is that I met my current boyfriend in my freshman year of high school. Technically. We didn't actually end up talking until almost Junior year, I think, but I still maintain the fact that I knew who he was well before that. 

    But, back to the long-winded topic at hand-- now that I'm without any of them-- we all went our separate ways to college and the workforce-- I'm back to where I started. It's odd, being 18 years old, and still feeling like that scared 10 year old that was too scared to talk to anyone new. Only now, I get a sense of embarrassment from it, because for God's sake, I'm an adult, I should be acting like it. But, it's not that simple, is it?

    This will sound like an incredible use of hypocrisy, but truly, don't feel shame. If you're lost, if you need someone, talk to someone. Find someone. People will reject you, but you're bound to find the people that don't. The only reason you won't is if you don't try at all.

    Besides, I think I'm doing mostly okay. I already started texting with one student in the same residence hall as me, all because I kept running into him when I got my keys stuck in various doors and couldn't get them out. Sometimes, it's the small things that really do work. I'd like to call it fate, because he's also an education major. The people that will work for you will work for you. Don't stress it, it will all work out. I promise. Because it has to. This is your life, and your dream. Make it work out.