How lonely the start of college can be

While moving to college may be frightening, the fear of not making friends scares us more. The first few weeks of college were challenging for me friend-wise. Before coming here, I joined as many group chats as I could, followed people going to the same college as me, and reached out as much as I could; but that only went so far. I didn’t really make any connections with anyone. Other people were able to make those connections and honestly, I was jealous. I wanted to make friends and meet everyone, but it was difficult. 

When I first got here, I only had my suitemate. We went out to all the activities the school offered and met lots of people, but it was only the basic “Hi my name is Karolyne, what’s your major” and never saw or talked to them again. During breakfast, one day my suitemate and I went up to a group of girls, introduced ourselves, and sat with them and we became friends. We hung out every couple of days and talked a lot, but the girls were all good friends, so my suitemate and I felt like outsiders. The friendship wasn’t deep, and I was right back to square one with no friends. This made me sad. I watched people post about them having fun with their new friends, going out, and having fun and I wanted that. As time went on, I met more people, I made more friends, but it was nothing deep, I didn’t have a friend group or a deep friendship with anyone. I’m a social person but It’s scary to talk to new people without feeling like they wouldn’t like me. 

I hated the lonely feelings, but I didn’t know what else to do about it but when I had to be put in quarantine, I had nothing but time. I started talking to someone I met in a group chat a few months back, who was also in quarantine more and more often. We only talked for 3 days but we became good friends in a short amount of time. We were released on the same day and hung out a couple of hours later and we clicked even more. He is now one of my best friends. I met a girl from Peru on my floor, later that day she asked me to go walk with her and I will forever be grateful that I said yes. We talked for hours outside, and we immediately clicked. She lives next door from me and so we started hanging out every day and got close so fast. 

She liked the same things as my other friend, so I wanted to introduce them, and it was one of the best decisions ever. We are all the same but different in our own ways, so the friendship clicked. It’s been like 2 weeks, and we see each other every day and do mostly everything together; I don’t know how I’m not tired of them yet.  I’m so happy I found my people here; it took a lot of time, and I was sad in the beginning but I’m so appreciative that I found them. I continue to make more friends each day too and I feel like I’m in the right place now. Reaching out goes a long way and it definitely is worth it in the end.