I’ve never been too good at socializing. I would always allow myself to overthink my way out of talking to someone. Which is definitely not the best strategy for your first year at college. You’re probably wondering why someone whose job it is to literally socialize would be writing about being terrible at socializing. That is a great question that will probably not have a clear answer. Kidding! Hopefully this will be relatable to someone who is similarly bad at socializing. I’ve definitely gotten better at it since becoming an ambassador, sometimes you just need a little push. I had to be the one to give myself that push when I first tried to make friends here.
For the sake of flair and fun, imagine a little harp in the background as I take you back to my first month-ish at college. My first month was a little bit boring and that was mostly my fault. I hadn’t made any real friends yet because I was being my usual antisocial self. My roommates were nice but we weren’t really friends. But my mom was coming down for University Weekend so it was finally my chance to get out of my dorm. I had a fun time with my mom, I got a free t-shirt and some really good tacos from a food truck. She eventually had to leave and go back home so I was left to fend for myself once again. As I was walking back to the elevator, I started looking at the fireplace lounge and realized I hadn’t really spent any time in there yet. So I took it upon myself to go explore somewhere other than my own dorm room. It was actually really nice there and the couch was pretty comfy. There were a few students already down there and I was just sitting there in my little corner on the couch texting one of my friends to make it seem like I was doing something. Then I saw one of the students wearing a jacket from a show I loved and I knew I had to talk to her about it. Normally I would try to talk myself out of it and say maybe it’s not the jacket I think it is but my friend was also pushing me to go talk to her. So I got up and tapped her on the shoulder and asked her. Low and behold it was the jacket and we began talking and found out we had other shared interests. She introduced me to her other friends and told me why they were all in the lounge that night. I ended up walking back up to her dorm with her and her friends and we played a game of uno and exchanged socials. After that night, we all spent basically every other night together and eventually ended up becoming roommates. It was a little thing like going to check out the lounge that led me to meeting some of my favorite people.
Many people worry about making friends in college and honestly you really just have to put yourself out there and talk to people you think you could mesh well with. Most of the time people who say that aren’t as bad at socializing but I’m here to represent my fellow non social people because if I can do it (which tbh is saying A LOT) then you definitely can. I just wanted to share my story to show that sometimes all it takes is a little nudge and you can end up meeting your best friends.
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