Move in day feels like a million years ago. So much has changed; I’ve changed. As much as you tell everyone you leave behind in your hometown that you won’t, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s pretty much inevitable. You have to adapt to the new space you’re in, and you have to make new friends, because honestly, you’re not going to just go to class, and then come home and lay in bed and watch Netflix (at least not every day). Your friends at other schools and back home have lives too. So, I figured I’d better get one myself. Although, what I didn’t expect was for these friends to be the girls two doors down, or right across from me.
Of course, my best friend is still my best friend, because there’re some people that just can’t be replaced. But she’s got a life, and a job, and a boyfriend. So yeah, there are definitely times things just don’t align and we go a while without talking, even when I’m in crisis, but that’s okay because I’ve built a community for myself, a secure safety net. When you’re out here in Pullman, 285 miles away from your mom and your fever is causing you to literally radiate heat, someone has to force that Ibuprofen down your throat (thank you, Emily). Honestly, it’s those little things, the little things that make you close, it’s them knowing where you met that super cute boy that you have a little teeny tiny crush on that you can hardly even qualify as a crush, or having people to run to the market or the dining hall with almost whenever you feel like it. Those things people can’t really do for you at a distance. And I’m so lucky the people who will do this kind of stuff with me literally live with me. Especially because I do realize not every floor of every dorm is like that.
To be entirely honest, I thought I wouldn’t make a single friend. I thought no one would get me and think I was just some weirdo. There’s no real rationale behind why I thought that would be my life, but it’s just so hard to imagine creating a new life after living such a stagnant one for the previous 18 years. I thought I could just survive on care packages and phone calls, but let’s be real you’re not going to call your best friend every time you see the same really cute boy around campus because that means nothing to your friends back home. The life you lead now is a little more separate from theirs, and that’s inevitable. Because when you see the same cute boy you’re going to turn to the girl you walk to class with every day and tell her that you think he’s cute and you’ll likely bond over that, and thus we have friendship.
I think coming into the new world that is college, everyone is a little afraid they’ll end up being that person who watches Netflix day and night, I know I certainly did. Because you can’t guarantee that the girl across the hall will be the same person as you, or there will be a girl down the hall who has the same kind of boy problems as you to bond over. But there’s comfort in the fact that there probably is some other girl on campus that is just like you, and because you’re basically the same person you’ll cross paths at some point, and everyone thinks they’re the only one with boy problems, but really everyone is going through something similar at some point and those people always find each other. I know I just got really lucky and found some really good people so early on and I’m incredibly thankful for it.
