In my first few weeks as a Duke junior, I’ve come to a somewhat unsettling, but exciting realization. I need more friends. This isn’t to say my existing friends aren’t awesome, they really are. They make me laugh, they support me, and they’ve exposed me to fascinating new ideas and experiences. I also have no intention of dropping them. But I’ve realized that if I can gain as much as I have from my existing Duke friends, then I have nothing to lose, and everything to gain by making more.
Making new friends requires us to put ourselves out there. Somehow, despite being nervous and friendless when we first arrived at Duke, we managed to summon up the confidence to do this during that first O-Week. Most of us can say that we feel more confident than we did at the beginning of freshman year, but despite our increased confidence, most of us have stopped trying as hard to make new friends. It’s easy to fall into a routine with our existing friends and social scene, but as comfortable and enjoyable as this may be, doing so prevents us from getting all that you can out of your Duke experience.
I started thinking about this idea, that Duke is full of interesting and fun potential new friends, when I started my study abroad program in Rome a week ago. There are ten Duke students on my trip, of which I only recognized five when we met the first day. Our paths hadn’t crossed, and if I hadn’t signed up for this trip they may never have. This random sampling of Duke students has proved to be incredible, and makes me wonder about all of the other smart, fun, and interesting Duke students out there that I have yet to meet. And I don’t think making new Duke friends requires a trip to Rome. It may just require the effort of starting a conversation at the bus stop, or giving an extra friendly hello to someone you only know peripherally. By putting in this extra effort, we can cash in on one of the best aspects of a Duke education, which is what you can gain from our peers.
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