When I first graduated from high school, I was told by someone I trusted that I wouldn’t make many friends in college. Even though I knew in my heart this wasn’t true, I believed them. I went to a small high school and, admittedly, only had a handful of friends. So, at the time, I believed that I just wasn’t capable of making many friends. I blamed myself.

One of my close friends from high school was going to go to the same college as me, and I did meet a couple of people at orientation, but I still couldn’t shake the idea that I would only make a few friends. I wasn’t very confident, as many college freshman are, and this was the first time in a long time that I had a chance to redefine who I was as a person. I even so far as to cut my long hair off into a bob as a way of convincing myself I was a new person.

I remember as the days before move-in day were dwindling, my mom and I sat on our patio and talked about my new chapter in life. She asked me who I wanted to be and how I wanted others to view me. I told her I wanted to be nice to everyone I met. Sounds like a pretty good goal to me, and I did stick to it, but I just didn’t know how much I still had to grow.

When I moved into my dorm, I was still terrified about putting myself out there. I didn't even have a roommate like I was supposed to. (They joined the army, instead.) My closest friend for most of my first semester was my friend from back home. When I say we were close, we were really close. We were both experiencing college together, and we would hang out a lot.

But, to be honest, I found it hard to make friends who were like me when she was around. I valued her friendship, and I still wish things could have been different, but one day I thought about what I told my mom about wanting to be the nicest person I could be, and I felt that I wasn’t achieving that with her around; she didn’t bring out the best in me. I do miss her at times because we were so close, but she just didn’t have a place in this chapter of my life. I ended our friendship and moved on.

I already made some friends, but now, I was able to get closer to them and also spend more time focused on making new friends. I found that some people were still hung up on high school, there was some petty issues over guys and there were just other people who I wasn’t on the same page with.

That is just what happens when you mix different kinds of people all in the same place. You have to see these people every day, so there is going to be drama, but you also get to see your friends every day, hang out, playing Cards Against Humanity in the common rooms, or watch "American Horror Story" every week with a group of people. The good comes with the bad.

I suddenly found myself friends with a lot of people all at once. I was really happy, and I was having a lot of fun. Toward the middle of my freshman year, I went out with a group of girls for my suitemate's birthday. This group of girls would later become my really close friends. We started hanging out more and would hang out outside as the weather got nicer. I had never been closer to a group of girls in my life. I was so happy, and that voice in my head chanting that I would never make friends was gone for good.

Living on campus gave me the confidence I needed to grow. Making friends is so easy when you allow yourself to. Maybe it is ending one friendship, so you can make dozens others, or maybe it is simply putting yourself out in the common room. It is all about new experiences when it comes to college. There are so many memories and moments I will never forget.

Freshman year made me into the person I am now, and I wouldn’t change a thing if I had to do it over again. I met some amazing people, and now that my sophomore year is coming to an end, I know I wouldn’t have had these experiences if I didn’t live on campus. I'm even still meeting new people and couldn't be happier.