Tips to Make Friends in College
Can you recollect the moment when you first make a friend? It was in a kindergarten or in a college. As for my childhood, a person I can recall naming “my friend” and only a few months later “the best friend” was someone I had met in a primary school. I think that I was about 5 years old. What brought us together? We had much in common: for instance, interests, music tastes and yes, complementary personalities. I was more into details, he was more into paining big scales for the future.
No necessity to emphasize that we have continued through our life, but there is one thing I want to highlight: my attitude to friendships has altered quite a bit. Did I make some new friends during these few years? Yes, but now my relationships with an old good friend got suffered because I simply did not have enough time for everybody.
When you start to look at relationships this way, at the beginning it doesn’t look like “something went wrong”. Again, initially it looks like you are able to control it, but it is only what you picture. After all, you cannot handle everything, and you are not able to force any relationships, you want it or no.
One of the most famous writers of the 19th century said that friendship is being born at the moment when one says to another “What? Did you just think about that too? No way!”. You may fully accept it or disagree with it, but kinship of souls is something that unites people.
You shouldn’t be scary since college is something new in your life. It is in a human’s nature to be scared of something new. Did you recollect how you made your initial steps? You did not think about “am I able?”, you just didn’t pay attention to your fears and started to walk just like that.
The reason we decided to put some tips together is to help you and show that opportunities in college with making new mates are really exiting. Then, you should not be scary at making new friends. Excitement at the number of opportunities you can make some really good mates in college. It does not matter it’s your primary semester or the last one, this article is about to help you in making mates in college and beyond. You may also use some online tools to check the computability to get some idea.
Are you ready to get friendly?
Step 1: Location, location, location
Can you make friends in just a month? Yes. If we had only one rule to share with you, it would be all about location or places. to be specific. Internet and social networks are something we use every single day, but you cannot exchange live talk and, say, conversation by Skype. Sit down, take a piece of paper and write down some places you can visit in order to meet potential friends. Yes, for the majority of people it may seem obvious, but there are some introverts who need it to be explained. This list can be really helpful since when you have a defined and clear list of places, the miracle comes to your life.
Even if you are super sociable person, you may not have thought about possible places you can meet people in your alma mater. Do not worry if you have problems with making up places – we have brought to you some ideas.
Let us start with some places where you can meet and make new friends:
3 Places to Meet People and Make Friends in College
1) Any campus events – from protests to classical music concerts.
For the time being, student life is all about events. Do you like motivational speaking? Then go for TED. are you keen on karaoke? We’re sure there are karaoke nights in your campus. Do you want to visit one of SXSW conferences? Here you go. Free craft nights or music festivals and other places allow you to find friends by your interests. Or if you wanted to try dancing, but you never had a chance, such events could be a nice try. Thanks to Facebook, we can learn about events anytime, anywhere. What is more – you are able to check for numerous posters handing around your campus. You will have only one challenge – to choose what to do today in the evening.
NB: The majority of such events have a reception before or after. This is your chance to start a conversation and meet new friends.
2) Your dorm – we cannot imagine a great place to make friends.
If currently you are not in your class, then you are in your dorm. Especially if you are a freshman student. The food could not that good, the decor and rooms may look like from the 2000s, but, yes, still dorms have one big advantage – it is a great place to make friends.
Why? Because they have all the spontaneous social interaction. Whether you are going to hang out or asking someone for assignment help, it is a great ground for friendships. It goes without mentioning that above can happen in other living situations, but sharing houses really helps to make some new friends just like that.
3) Places around campus
Usually students overlook this, but if you open your mind and look around campus – you can find some good places to meet new friends. For instance, the local gym – if you and your friend are both into sports, it is a great interest to share or the student center p it is just great for people wanting and a nice place to start a small talk. Waiting does not bring you anything, thus you should be active and walk around campus.
Step 2: How to Go from Acquaintance to Friend
We’re about to give you one ultimate rule which will help you to make new friends at once. Usually people are worried about themselves and they think about their lives. Try to be interested in other people since everybody needs that attention. This is the one and only rule you should keep in mind to go from acquaintance to friendship.
Step 3: How to Deepen and Cultivate Friendships
As you have found from the above, you don’t have to control relationships, but cultivation is a must. Picture friendships as a plant: you need to cultivate it, to take care of it and to keep a finger on the pulse making sure it grows and it’s healthy.
The same thing with relationships: you should track them from time to time checking what your friendships need more. Or it can be that you did not see your friends for months or you forgot to call back when he needed help? When two persons Understand that friendship should be deeper, a miracle starts.
These easy tips will help you to meet and make new friends in college. Do not hesitate to take actions today and you will see how fast you will meet new mates.