Friends Forever: Where to find friends in college
By Kiley Seligman
The deadline crept closer and I was getting desperate. My college roommate decided she was not coming back to school after our freshman year together, and I needed a roommate. I had heard a girl down the hall was going to be roommate-less, too. She seemed like a nice person the few times I had talked with her, so I approached her about rooming together the following year.
I wrote a note on the whiteboard on her door. Come see me when you get back. I want to ask you something.
A few hours later, she showed up and we went down to her empty room to talk.
“So, I heard you don't have a roommate for next year. Do you still not?” I asked.
“No, I've talked to a couple of people, but I don't have anyone yet,” she answered.
“Do you want to room together?”
“Do you think we'd get along well?”
I hadn't really thought about it. I just needed a roommate, and I didn't want to get put with another complete stranger. But I simply answered, “Yeah, I think so.”
And that's how it happened. We randomly chose each other to be roommates for our sophomore year. After a fun-filled year together, we parted ways for summer vacation. She sent me a text message when I left. “Please don't leave me! I miss you already! Love you!”
They say the friends you make in college are the friends that will stay with you for the rest of your life. After two years of college, I fully believe in the truth of that statement.
My roommate is my best friend. I went to college knowing absolutely no one, and now have more friends than I can number, including a close foursome.
One of the biggest worries that high school graduates have is leaving their friends to go to college to start the next big chapter in their lives. It’s scary to leave your home, your family, your high school friends, and the town you know well. . However, any high school graduate should know they can make some of the best friends they will ever have.
It doesn't matter if you go to a public school where you know plenty of people from high school or if you end up at a private college where you know no one. There are plenty of ways to meet new people and to make new friends.
The first thing you have to do is mentally prepare yourself. It is challenging to go to a new place and to have to start over with your friendships. You have to be willing to put yourself out there and really try to make friends.
Before you leave, think up generic questions to ask the new people you meet. It is important to prepare conversation topics so you won't struggle with those awkward silent moments. Having things to talk about will help you make acquaintances, and eventually friends, more quickly.
Orientation is the perfect place to start making friends. Multitudes of people around you are the same age and in the same situation. They want to make friends just as much as you do.
In any college or university, there are plenty of places to meet people. Obviously, it is important to make friends with your roommate and with the people around you. Not everyone is as blessed as I am to have a roommate who turns into a best friend. However, roommates should at least be friendly with each other.
Look for people you will get along with on your wing or floor. When you want to hang out with people, you will not want to walk across campus to see someone. It is nice to get a break from studying by walking across the hallway and crashing in your friend's room. Get to know the people around you and you will enjoy school much more.
Once you’re all familiar, set up places to go and things to do for your whole wing or floor. As everyone gets to know each other better it increases unity and makes you feel close to the people you see all the time. This will make your living area really seem like home.
Classrooms provide a perfect place to make friends. If you don't know anyone in your class, look for a friendly face and sit down by them. Even speaking about classroom schedules or assignments could be the beginning of a friendship.
College classes will be difficult. Pairing up with fellow students in your class to study together or check assignments helps in more than one way. You get to help each other with things you don't understand about the material. At the same time, you also make friends. Eventually, you will start hanging out beyond classroom work and your friendship will grow.
Though classes and homework will take up much of your time at school, there will still be time to do other things. Colleges offer plenty of extracurricular activities to students in every type of field.
Clubs range from science to literature, foreign cultures to student government. Athletics can include everything from cheerleading to football, intercollegiate to intramural. Find at least one thing you are interested in and join. These teams, clubs or societies will be a place for you to meet people with interests similar to your own.
Meeting people who are much like you will make conversations easy. Everyone wants to hang out with someone who enjoys doing the same things they do. There is no better way to meet people with similar interests than by joining a group who are known to like something you do.
Sporting events are another great way to build friendships. Pick a sport you enjoy watching and grab a couple people you know to attend the game together. This can improve the friendships you have and will give you another chance to meet new people. The atmosphere screams of spirit and fun. Everyone feels energetic and happy —unless your team is losing, of course. Even if you go to the sporting event with friends, you will inevitably end up sitting next to someone that you don't know. Time-outs and intermission provide good times for you to smile at the person next to you and strike up a conversation. Asking simple questions about where they live or what their major is will set you up well. Short questions periodically in lulls throughout the game can give you, if not a friend, at least an acquaintance.
Colleges also set up different events in which their students can take part. Dances, cookouts, games, movie nights, or concerts are just some examples of typical college happenings. Going to these events provides not only some good entertainment and fun, usually on the cheap, but it gives you another chance to meet fellow students.
Again, at these events, you have to make sure to get out of your bubble. These nights are fun with the friends you have already made, but they can be a perfect place to make new friends as well. There will be people milling about everywhere and all you have to do is start up a conversation with someone nearby.
The easiest and most common way to make friends in college is through other friends. If you go out with people, your friends will invite other people they know and your group will grow.
Once you are out with a big group, don't be shy about talking with the people you don't know. If others are friends of friends, they will probably get along well with you, too.
Be partners with someone you don't know while playing a game. Sit down by someone you aren't familiar with at dinner. Get to know the others, because you will most likely see these people again in the future. It is always good to know your friends' friends. This will increase the number of people you get to hang out with as well.
An important part of the college social scene is the website Facebook. Many high school students have this already. If you don't have a Facebook account set up, do so in college.
When people meet new people, they usually add them as a friend on Facebook. This way, you do not lose touch with the acquaintances you make.
Facebook is also a way to talk with people you don't know well without having to strain for a long conversation. People make plans to hang out or share funny things that happened.
People also share pictures over Facebook. These pictures can be great conversation starters. They are also a way to keep up with what everyone is doing. This is a great tool to turn acquaintances into friends in college.
Overall, it is important to put yourself out there in college. Some people end up sitting in their dorm rooms playing video games, watching movies or studying all the time. Students need to get outside their rooms, take part in activities and meet new people that are all around.
Making friends and acquaintances will make the college experience so much better. Friends don't come in a day. You have to start by making acquaintances and getting to know lots of different people. The friendships will come.
As you take part in all the good things the college life has to offer, you and your friends will grow closer together. You can laugh at the funny experiences and the goofy times. You can help each other in the hard times. It is just like any other friendship you have had in your life.
However, in college, you are around your friends all the time. You learn to rely on each other and become like family. Then, chances are, the people you become close to will stick with you for the rest of your life.
