The first friends that you make your first year of college are some of the most important. They’re there with you for all of your college firsts, sharing in your awkward and stressful experiences. During your freshman year, you meet so many new and interesting people that you never would’ve met in your hometown high school, and probably end up becoming friends with most of them. Everyone comes to college in the same friendless, worried boat, which takes most of the pressure off. You don’t have to put up a front, and making friends can just come naturally. These people that you end up surrounding yourself with can teach you a lot about yourself. Once you find a group of people that you click with, college becomes a home away from home.

No matter how awkward your first few weeks at school are, it’s okay because everyone else feels the same way. You bond with the people that you meet in the first few weeks thanks to we-all-went-through-the-same-awkward-thing glue. These are the people by your side for your first exam stress, your first all-nighter study session, and your first frat party. These experiences will unite you. And once you have this group of people that you really click with, it’s basically like having a sleepover every night, with all of your best friends.

Learning new things about people that you just met is an incredible experience. Some people you meet will have seven pet hamsters, others were junior Olympians, and others will want to build roller coasters for a living. In high school you were mainly surrounded by the same people every day; you knew everyone’s story, and most likely hung out with the same people every day. While it’s hard to leave those friends at first, it’s so easy to get caught up in meeting new ones. Students come to college from anywhere in the country -- or the world -- and they bring fun new facts and weird sayings. It’s refreshing to meet someone new and have so much to learn about them.

While you’re learning things about new people, you also end up learning about yourself. You start your friend group over from scratch, coming in with a blank slate. So, what kinds of people do you want to hang out with? The people that you choose to be around say a lot about yourself. In college, you meet so many different kinds of people. You are no longer restricted to just a few people in high school who shared some of your interests. You get to pick and choose who you talk to, and the qualities that you base your new friendships on are a reflection of your own interests. You will probably end up becoming friends with someone that you never would’ve talked to in high school, and that’s a really good thing. Those kinds of friendships that are based on simply sharing the same values (like kindness or cleanliness or something) are the ones that really make you think about everything. You seem to become friends so naturally, but have almost nothing in common on the surface. When you start digging around and find those values that really solidify your friendship is when you really start learning about what’s important to you.

If you’re worried that you won’t make friends in college, don’t be. Everyone finds someone. College is much more diverse than any high school, everyone can find a place to fit in. Once you find your place, college will probably become the best four years of your life (so far).