Like many others, I was pretty nervous to move away from home for the first time, especially coming to a city where I know absolutely no one. Of course I was excited for the freedom, but the introvert in me was terrified that I wouldn’t make any friends here at all.
Let me start by telling you that moving into residence was the best decision I have made to date. I have made some of the best friends that I could have ever asked for. Here’s the story…
The first week in residence was pretty fun with all of the O-Week activities going on, but it gets kinda hard to enjoy everything alone. By the second day, I still didn’t really know anyone and was hesitant to go to the activities because I was worried I would be alone. My roommate ended up dragging me to the paint party, and on the way there I met my now best friend.
I never would have thought that meeting one person could shape my entire university experience, but here we are. This one person introduced me to their roommates, and their roommates introduced me to their friends. Before I knew it, I had my first ever friend group.
Throughout high school, I never really had any groups of friends. I had people I would talk to on occasion, but never any best friends (until now).
We quickly got very close because we all happened to live on the same floor. We would have game nights often and see each other daily (and we still do)! Living in residence has given me the opportunity to see these amazing people as often as I want to, living only seconds away. It makes late night game nights much easier to schedule when no one has to go very far to get home at the end of the night.
Realistically, there isn’t that much to do here in Brantford. But honestly, I never get bored because my friends always seem to have something planned. Skating, game nights, dinner, movie nights, and we even got together to do a Secret Santa gift exchange this Christmas.
One of my favourite things we do is our game nights. It gives us a chance to come together as a group as well as bring in other people to hang out. There’s always new people coming to the game nights that don’t always live in our building; it’s so nice to be able to talk to people from other residence buildings as well!
Living in residence meant that I never had to be alone unless I wanted to be. My friends here became my main support. These are the people I know that I can turn to when everything in life seems to be going wrong.
If you’re not sure if living in residence is right for you, let me be the one to tell you to give it a try! If you know that you want to meet some new people and make some pretty awesome friends, this is definitely for you.
These friends have quickly become a second family to me. I couldn’t imagine having to get through my first year without them. Love you guys!