When selecting a college to attend, I always knew that I wanted to go to an institution that would give me a fresh start. I wanted a new opportunity to meet people that were not from my hometown, and relive what it was like to make friends. Though I have had the same high school friend group for almost ten years now, I knew going to college, I did not want to go somewhere that was high school 2.0. With that in mind, I decided to go to UNH, and happened to be the only person from my graduating class of 418 to attend. This was something that caused a lot of anxiety for me building up to move in day. It had been so long since I made new friends, so this experience was very unfamiliar to me. However, I was able to figure out how to become comfortable around people I considered strangers, and was able to make new friends. Here is what I did that helped me find the friends that I am still with four years later.
First, I was lucky enough to find a roommate that had a lot of the same interests as me through class Facebook groups. It may seem a little cheesy, but these groups made things more comfortable because you were able to talk about your interests with other incoming freshmen. Through this group, I was able to discover that we like the same music, TV shows, and ended up living fairly close to each other in Massachusetts. Talking to someone who also knew no one going to UNH really helped me feel comfortable. It made me feel like I was not alone in the process of starting at college and moving away from home. On move in day, we kept our dorm room door wide open. This was a prompt for other freshmen wandering through the halls to walk in and hang out. This helped us become comfortable with all of the other girls on our floor. Another thing I did was I decided to attend almost every social event that our resident building hosted. This was crucial to meeting new people. Everyone who attended these socials were just as eager to meet new people as we are, and everyone was open to conversation about anything. Through this, our floor was able to plan a movie night that led to us making other close friends. Though this was only freshman year, I was able to form a really strong friend group doing these activities in the beginning of the school year.
I have never been much of an outgoing person, but after four years at college I have realized that almost everyone is just as nervous to talk to a stranger as you are. Now that I am a senior, I have decided I am going to work on overcoming this fear. Though I wish I had done this sooner, I have decided to start talking to the people that sit next to me in every class, continuing conversations with people in my discussion groups, and waving to people I used to do homework with last semester. The old me would have never reached out to these people, but I feel much more comfortable at school now that I have started breaking out of my shell. It can be really nerve wracking making the first move in this case, but nine times out of ten, you will not regret it.