It’s one of the great challenges of our time: making friends. It comes more easily to some people than others, but it’s a fact of life, that a sense of community and friendship is necessary for our survival. Friendship comes in many shapes, sizes, and varieties, and the friendships you make in college can be some of the most long-lasting our unique.
1. Class friends
These are the people you know in your classes. Whether you went out of your way to introduce yourself on the first day, got grouped together for a class activity, or laughed at someone’s snide, under-the-breath comment, you find yourself friends with this person. Even if your friendship doesn’t extend beyond the classroom, it’s nice to go to class and see a friendly face.
2. Hall friends
Whether you actually live in a hall or not, these people are your neighbors. You might have met them at events at the very beginning of the year, and they’re the people you hang out with at and around your home. These are the people you go to if you’re having a problem at home, need to borrow something, or temporarily print from their printer when yours is down. These might also be the people who keep you awake at night blasting music, but you deal with them. You feel you know them in a unique way, since you all live in the same place.
3. Bus friends
This person can also be classified under “person who happens to frequent the same places as you.” You guys take the same bus, go to the library at the same time, eat at the dining hall at the same time, etc. You never speak to each other, but you know that the other is there. Over time, you occasionally acknowledge each other, maybe give a wave or the nod of a head. You feel like you know each other, but you don’t know each other’s names.
4. People you knew in high school
If you went to a big high school, there’s a likelihood you see people from high school all over grounds. Depending on what kind of person you are, you either tend to embrace these people with a kind greeting, or you avoid eye contact and speaking to them no matter what. You have a bond with these people whether you like it or not, and you find yourself talking to them on occasion when you have nobody else to talk to, or asking them what the homework was when you missed class.
5. Friends in your activities
Whether your activities are sports, fraternities, performance, or political, these are the people you find yourself spending a majority of your time with. These people share your interests, and with all the group events and parties that you attend with the group, it’s only natural that you end up gravitating towards particular people and making friends. These friendships tend to go deeper, and tend to extend beyond the activities that you do in your organizations.
6. Friends for life
You can meet this person in any variety of ways. Whether it be by any of the above methods or happenchance or something else, this is the person you do everything with. You eat in the dining hall, study together, get together for every meal and spend every weekend together. No matter how many people you end up meeting, this is the person that will stick in your life.
Friends can make or break your college experience, and you’re going to meet a lot of people. How often they come and go is up to you, but in the end, only the good friends will end up sticking around.
