Making friends has always come easily to me.

I get this quality from my mom. She has the ability to strike up a conversation with absolutely anyone. She asks questions to make the other person feel like she genuinely wants to know; which she 100 percent does! Luckily, I've gotten all of this from her. I love getting to know people. I love knowing all of their favorite things and what makes them tick. I'm pretty good at making conversation with people I don't know. My boyfriend's mom has always told me:

"You can always find something in common with someone, even if it's something small."

I totally agree, but for some reason, making friends this semester has been the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

My major is small. Twenty of us move from class to class together every day, all learning the exact same material. I wanted to focus on school my first semester, so I never really ate with any of them during lunch. By the time I was ready to make friends, groups had already been established and I didn't want to intrude. I don't live on campus, so I wasn't assigned a roommate. My roommate is basically my brother. I've joined school clubs, like the SVSU Odyssey community and I love the members! But I find it hard to strike up a conversation with them. My one close girlfriend lives just over an hour away so I only see her once a week at church on Sundays. I'm just a girl with faith in God, I don't find enjoyment in partying. Finding people who felt the same way was hard.

All of this makes me a little sad sometimes. I thrive on getting to know people, and knowing that I have a friend I can turn to in certain situations for help is really comforting.

Luckily, all of this is turning around for me. I've met a group of people recently that I have more in common with than any group I've ever known. Since I've met them last week, we've gone out to eat three times, gone to Skyzone and jumped our brains out, watched multiple movies and several episodes worth of Untold Stories of the ER, and spent New Year's Eve together. I think I've found my squad, and I love it.

What I've learned through all of this is that it's okay to spend time alone. During this time, I got to know myself and I did really well in school. Now, I've made a group of friends that I think will last a lifetime. Squad up!