Class friendships. Oh, how I love them. They’re the low-maintenance bonds that strengthen just a tiny bit each week. The people you basically only see in said class, and a friendly face you pass on the street if you’re lucky. The acquaintances you’re far too excited to see in a random social setting, and who you’ll laugh with about said interaction when the following class is in session. No, you’ve never been to their house and no, you can only remember so many personal details about them. But the anonymity is all the more fun.
In high school, I had—dare I say—copious amounts of class friends. And it was awesome. They were the members of “lab group 5” in biology. The four of us surrounded the same wooden table with the black countertop for 80 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 40 minutes on Wednesdays. They were also the members of senior year AP Psych–the last class of our day where we contemplated our upcoming after-school snacks, complained about homework for that night, and gossiped about who we were taking to the next school dance although we were all part of different pre-dance-pictures groups. With a graduating class of 1,001 students, it was impossible to know everyone, let alone be close to everyone. Yet complicated social dynamics and vastly different athletic abilities felt less significant as we completed our group assignments together, shared mutual angst as our teachers walked by placing exams on our desks, and struggled to keep it together as our Spanish teacher cracked a terribly unfunny joke.
At such a big school it was statistically unlikely to be placed in a class with all of your best friends. Though initially disappointed to have received different schedules, I began to enjoy the randomness of our class rosters. The reason for this was not because I didn’t want to spend more time with my close friends, but instead because it facilitated a different type of friendship. The class friendship. A friendly, low-stakes friendship that was generally pretty benign, yet pleasant. No drama, limited details, just vibes. Amidst the stress of school’s academic pressures, I looked forward to returning to a group of peers I could make relatable banter with for the duration of that class period.
The lighthearted interactions seemed insignificant at surface level, but adding one more friendly face to say hi to in the hallways or in the cafeteria line played a role in making a large school feel like a community to me.
I now attend a university 8 times the size of my already massive high school. Lectures are larger, students skip class more regularly, and students have more free will to use their phones instead of being forced to make conversation with a neighbor. That freedom is a blessing and a curse, one downside being that class friends are rarer.
The class friends I have made in college (officiated by having met at least one of the following criteria: 1. I consider them my class friends, 2. a group chat was made), have dramatically improved my overall experience in such respective classes, regardless of the actual course content.
In case I have not yet made myself clear: I encourage college students to make conversation with other students in their classes (when appropriate. Probably do this when the professor isn’t speaking). Becoming friendly with peers is mutually beneficial in a multitude of ways. To name a few:
- Having class friends is fun!
- Knowing the people in your classes facilitates a more collaborative environment during small and large group discussions.
- It’s somebody to ask questions about assignments.
- It’s literally networking. As you get farther along in your major, you begin to see similar faces. Many of them are interested in similar careers and opportunities, and could be great resources!
- It promotes campus-wide community—more familiar faces to say hi to in passing!
- You never know who you’re going to meet! Maybe your class friendship (or class crush) will develop outside of an academic context.
Early morning classes (and sometimes afternoon and evening classes), are hard. Obviously there are days I get to class and the last thing I want to do is speak to another human being. That said, I miss the effortless abundance of class friends high school brought. The trauma bonds created between struggling 9th period students watching the clock tick away the last minutes of the day. The inside jokes shared between students who otherwise couldn’t have fathomed the stories that arose from class. The weekly debrief about that week’s episode of The Bachelor.
While the college class environment is different in some ways, it’s amazing how much smaller a large school can feel when you begin to meet people, even through small interactions. As the new semester kicks off, I challenge you to make more class friends.