College friends are a blessing—they see you from your best to your worst and want nothing more than for you to succeed. But, here's the thing, making friends in college is not a walk in the park for many or most of us. Most of us see on social media all these people having these friend groups right away but for many of us, we don't.
So, I'm here to tell you it is okay if you don't find your group of friends right away. It's okay if you don't ever find a big group of friends at all in college. The reality is, college is lonely and makes you learn how to be independent and do many things on your own. You learn a lot about yourself when you do a lot of things on your own.
Many of us go into college thinking we will find our people and have this huge friend group similar to the ones portrayed over social media, in books, movie, television, etc. But many of us don't. Looking back at my freshman year of college, the first month I mainly was alone. I did everything by myself. I knew no one besides my roommate who could not attend the festivities because she was in the marching band.
I went to welcome week alone, ate alone, walked to class alone, sat alone in class since many of them were lecture halls. It wasn't until about a month in that a girl in front of me in my communication speech class befriended me to come over to a movie night in her dorm. And she's been my best friend ever since.
After that, we did and still do everything together. We became best friends. Yeah, we met other friends but we just didn't click or mesh right with those people. I tried to make friends in my classes still, but most of us wouldn't be friends out of that class. I still did things with other people I met but I just felt, awkward. I knew I didn't fit in that group. And that was okay.
Freshmen year taught me it's okay to do every alone because I wasn't the only one. And I learned how important it is to do things by yourself and to just be alone.
No, I didn't find a group sophomore year. But I've found something better, a few more people I can depend on. Those are the types of people you want to have in college. Yeah, having a big friend group is great for going out, but when it comes down to it, having a few friends is all you really need to help get you through your lows and to celebrate your highs with.
So, to all the new incoming college students, it is okay to do a lot of things alone. Most of us do—and none of us are judging you for it. Eating alone, or really doing anything alone especially in college is daunting. But college has taught me how much I've come to love doing things alone.
