Okay, so this isn't a serious article about how to make friends throughout your college years. Rather, listed below are a few anecdotes that detail the experiences I've had in meeting new people during my first proper semester of college, and the turning points at which we connected.
1.Going up to random students in the Dining Hall and striking up a conversation with them.
GiphyApparently, this is not a common occurrence in American colleges, but when I studied abroad in New Zealand, it was the norm university culture norm.
Culture shock much?
I've also knocked on floormates' doors to introduce myself. This is still an ongoing process, as I only know approximately three other people on my floor besides my roommate.
However, this tactic has warranted me a weekly invitation to a viewing party of The Bachelor when it came on Monday evenings. Various forms of junk food would forego proper dinner as we congregated in the common area of our dorm building and spend the entirety of the ninety-minute episode debating who will go home that week, and whether or not the "Luggage Man"—the mystery suited man who says and does nothing on screen but move out the girls' luggages in preparation for when they get sent home—would make his appearance.
2. Collecting data from my classmates during chemistry lab.
GiphyOne week,upon asking for one of their names so I could better organize everyone's information, he informs me, "We're literally in the same math class, how do you not know my name?"
That class has 25 students. The teacher cycles through a stack of index cards (each with our name on it) and uses them to call on us to answer questions every day. We were several weeks into the semester.
We became lab partners from the next lab onwards, and he now waits for me finish packing my bag at the end of each session so he could walk me to my dorm building. He's honestly one of the most amiable people I've ever met, and we have great conversations that go beyond how to calculate the RH value along the hydrogen emission spectrum to discussing the perils of driving (we both view it more as a chore than a leisure activity). This viewpoint is especially emboldened on his end, since he drives to school every day. I sympathize for him, since we have lab from seven to ten o'clock every Tuesday evening, meaning that by the time he sits down in his home to do schoolwork, it's nearly eleven.
To be honest, I still have yet to figure out just about everyone else's in that math class, but I've made sure to commit his to memory.
3. Dropping a leftover quesadilla on accident soon as I reach the front of the line at Dunkin'.
GiphyI spent the morning volunteering with my co-ed service fraternity, and she was one of the Brothers present. I didn't know her, but we started chatting when our shift ended and she held the door open for me when we left. Apparently, we're in the same year, study similar subjects and live in the same dorm building. This then prompted us to grab lunch together: cheese and salsa-filled quesadillas with a side of raw string beans. We chatted over lunch, mostly about college life as STEM majors, along with joking asides as to what drove someone to serve green beans as a salad option.
Before parting ways, we made a quick coffee run. There was a line, and since I still had some of my quesadilla left over, I decided to take it out of my backpack and finish eating it.
Big mistake.
The tortilla is greasy, so much so that it falls out of my hand and makes a nasty plopping noise when it hits the ground. She's in hysterics. So am I. The cashier and customers eye us, and she controls her laughter just long enough for her to gasp, "Medium caramel iced coffee with regular cream and sugar" before re-launching into another fit of giggles. This may or may not have happened the day prior to me writing this article, and also may or may not be the inspiration behind it.
I chose to write about these instances because I realized that these minute everyday experiences are truly exclusive to college life. Only in college would you be able to watch mindless reality T.V. and bask in its drama. Only in college would you not know the names of anyone in your classes, and feel ashamed when you see someone outside of that class and you treat them as if you two have never seen each other before. Only in college would you take a cheese and salsa-filled tortilla to go, only to have your greatest fear confirmed when you drop it.
To make friends in college isn't a culture, science or act of foolishness; rather, it's a unique, organic process that takes a bit of courage and a lot of genuity. Treat these years as opportunities to network, and don't forget to embrace the quirkiness in doing so.