About a month ago, I and one of my close friends were sitting at one of my favorite restaurants, The Root, in Elon, North Carolina. (As you can tell, this story is already off to a great start.) I don't know if it was the piping hot plate of truffle fries in front of me, the award-worthy grilled cheese with avocado sitting next to it or the fact that it was nearing the end of the school year, but we were feeling especially appreciative.
We were grateful that we had met each other on one of the first days of freshman year and remained such good friends ever since. And we began to get reflective about how appreciative we were to have all of the amazing people that we do in our lives. I’ll spare you the emotions of it all, but basically, we felt, and feel, thankful to have people in all parts of our lives that support us.
And that’s when we began discussing the fact that, yes we do have all of these amazing people in our lives that come from a variety of areas and backgrounds. And, sure we both have a bunch of close friends, and we have found our niches in college. However, we came to the conclusion that neither one of us have that "one friend group" that's a "go-to" that practically everyone, or at least it seems, talks about or has. In the niches that we’ve found, sure we have close groups of friends, who are pretty similar to ourselves because of the groups we are involved in our respective majors.
Outside of our majors, however, we are involved in a variety of activities on campus. This is where the floating comes in. Through having an on-campus job, being involved in student media, studying abroad and dipping our toes in a range of organizations around campus, we have the luxury of having friends all across Elon.
I call it a luxury, a privilege of sorts because that's what I truly believe it is. How lucky am I to be able to experience so many different types of people and perspectives? As my friend so eloquently put it, being a floater, having friends in all corners of campus, grants you a key into the lives of a plethora of people that you otherwise wouldn’t have known. It makes you aware of a variety of passions and personalities and, in my opinion, my variety of friend groups provide me with a more well-rounded and complete life overall.
One of the best feelings that comes along with being a floater is when you hang out with two friends from different groups and they hit it off. You just sit back like a proud mother watching her kids on the playground make friends.
Another benefit? When you want to make lunch plans, someone is always available.
