Moving away from home and going to college is definitely a scary transition. Exciting.. but scary. Everyone worries about the same typical things such as who they be best friends with, if they will have people to sit with in classes, and how they will deal with going to school with several thousand people in their “grade.”
Lucky for all you worried newcomers, there are so many ways to make a huge campus seem a lot smaller and make it feel more like home. The easiest way that people overlook so often is literally just be a friendly person. Say hi to people! Make a goal to meet everyone on your floor before the end of your first semester. Seeing friendly faces around campus automatically make the size of the school seem smaller.
Join a club or some type of group. Being a member of the club soccer team or in a Greek Life organization is great. It’s like you go from only having friends from your dorm or meeting people through mutual friends to having a hundred new friends to go do stuff with. That’s a hundred people who will go eat with you so you don’t have to snack on Pop Tarts in your dorm room in an attempt to avoid being the loner eating in the corner by yourself. No one wants that.
Don’t just sit in your room all the time watching episode after episode of Breaking Bad. Just leave your room and go to the gym or even hangout in the lobby of your dorm. Even if you don’t make a friend every time, people watching can be quite… interesting… at points.
College is scary. No one knows exactly what to expect but it can be a great experience if you make the best of it. Just be friendly, smile, and say hello.