I don't think my friends I made at orientation realize how grateful I am of them. Although I never had trouble "making friends" meeting them made me much less stressed to start college. I often engage in any conversation whether people were talking to me or not. I grew up with a noisy, talkative, and loud family and that has really helped me when adjusting to new places, like schools. So when going to orientation for college, I was prepared to do the same thing I always do: talk too much until people thought I was funny enough to be their friend.
At my orientation, it was beginning of July, hot, but a lot of fun. NO ONE in my group wanted to talk or engage in any of the "ice breakers" so I really had to be extra to get this group talking. We did the introductions, fun facts, and silly games but once leaving the circle of introductions we had to have our own conversations that we create ourselves. I think the biggest talking point was Snapchat (as most people in the group had) and with the new addition of "streaks" it caused competition and laughter has to how high or low certain streaks were. Us millennials really know how to communicate. It was around this point that we really started to get familiar with each other.
There were the Pace Performing arts majors, the English majors, the business majors, and the education majors. It was pretty diverse and the conversations started to vary from what we wanted to do in life and where we were from. I thought most people were gonna be near me, since I'm only an hour away from the school, but there were kids from my home state of Connecticut, and then New Jersey, Massachusetts and even California!
Little did I know then but the people I was chatting with and getting to know were gonna become my best friends at school and future roommates. When we went on the party boat to end the night we all hung out, talked and danced/sang the songs a great DJ was playing. One of the girls in my orientation group was there with her roommates for freshman year but they were in another group. So, I didn't really get to meet them until we all were hanging out before bed, but I include them as best friend's from orientation. Two girls from Massachusetts in my group were also planning to room together for freshman year and now are going to be my roommates for sophomore year.
Leaving orientation I was really excited for school, Pace really hyped us and got us ready for the fall. I had followed all my new friends on every social media platform imaginable and was counting down the days when I could see them again. One of my friends from orientation is a commuter and to this day is my source of information of what do to in the city since he has been exploring this jungle for years.
These friends I wouldn't replace for anything. I encourage anyone who is starting college next fall to really try and get to know their orientation group because you could be lucky like me and find friends that'll last a lifetime.
