“Friends are angels that lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly”
Being a college fresher, the first self-realization should be that everyone is in the same ship.
So, getting extra anxious for befriending with someone does not need to give someone extra
jittery. Friendship is required and in the initial days, it would be hard to find.
Introvert and extrovert have the different style of accepting new friendships in their lives. An
introvert does not need to be all outgoing and outspoken every time. A simple welcoming
gesture with a smile can make the next three years journey better.
Students staying the college campus or sharing the rooms with other students in the same flat
share a very good bonding with each other over the time. Such students sharing one room can
better socialize with other. They can internalize each other’s culture and can accept each
other wholly. Starting your new journey and making friends should not be viewed as task.
Such fulfilment in the friendship will come naturally.
Being fresher straight from the school would give someone a unique experience because
students at that time get the different experience of getting connected with the different
people. One important thing to consider is that first few friendships can be a wrong choice
and that should not be the concern. Instead, such experience in the life needs to be considered
as the learning lesson at the early twenty-something.
“The greatest gift of life is friendship”
Hence, you may be pretty thrilled that you have just finished your school and cracked the
very first interview in your dream college. Things are going on the right direction in your life;
at this time something is causing overwhelming sensation that the next week will be your
very first week in the college. You are worried because you will be surrounded by the
strangers.
Befriending people in the new college needs few hacks. Before you extend your friendship to
someone and investing your time, you should set your priorities clearly. Without friends in
the college, this will be difficult to manage. At the end of the day, what matters that we share
our personal stories with someone in the same path.
Sometimes, we face obstacles in getting along with people and we have to put too much
efforts in making friends. Following are the few hacks that will make this friendship journey
easier.
Making new friends seems to be the most prioritized factor:
At the beginning of the college, it seems like that making new friends is the be-all and end-all
in the first few days of the college. This feeling is natural and it will come automatically in
these three years of journey. Getting all worked up for the new friendship is required but
should not be given that importance.
Here are the few tricks that would help you settling your new connections-
Begin your introduction on the positive note:
To introduce yourself, you should spend more time away from your desk. Utilize the free
time in initiating conversation with the collegemates. Try to know their names and mention
their names next time while you are conversing. Spend more time at the lunch hours or in
front of the coffee-machine. Try to strike a conversation while for your food order in the
cafeteria. Every time, introduce yourself by clearly uttering your name and department and
ask others what their name is and which department they are in.
Suggest names of the drink or best eateries to collegemates:
Giving suggestions to the collegemates create the opportunities of the conversation. Through
such small pieces of suggestions, you can initiate the conversation with the strangers. This
sets the willingness of a fresher person to start a conversation on something apart from the
work. Small planning for hang out outside the college would increase the bonding between
the friends.
Start a day with a proper greeting:
One should know how to start a day with a warm greeting. What if you do not know someone
in the college yet, you can still greet them morning or afternoon while entering the office.
Expressing a warm smile when you cross someone else’s path would build the positive
relationship with other people.
Beware of the nonverbal communication:
One should be aware of their way of communication pattern with others. Body language and
eye contact are the two most important aspect while communicating with others. Wrong body
language sets wrong expectation.
Beware of the wrong communication pattern:
Communication is the antidote to any problem in the college. Without friends in the college,
things in the college can be utterly hard and difficult. Friends in the college can reduce stress
and tension. It increases the belonging in the college. Being friendly or friend has a thin line
difference. Not everyone in the college should know something very personal about you. By
oversharing, things could be utterly complicated.
Becoming a part of the college group:
Friends can be made easily in the college if you share the same group with other co-workers.
In this way, you would be able to know a person up-close and can initiate discussion on the
various things like the common movies and the books you want to read and have already read
in the past.
Keeping low expectation:
As a fresher, you might have a huge expectation about your co-friends in the workplace. We
mostly have the superficial expectation about our teachers and how a college environment
should be. In this case, one should not keep much expectation of the environment of the
college. Each college has its different internal rules and some colleges even have the group of seniors who dominate others. In that case, keeping expectation low from others would help in
creating new friends and networking properly.
Hanging out in the college common room:
College friends should spend more time while watching Netflix in the common room. This is
how friends become Netflix buddy in the college. Next time, when you meet with your group,
you will have the common topic to discuss about your favorite show. Fresher in this way
can create their own group. This is how the initiation phase of the friendship starts taking
place.
Freshers’ week are almost fun:
Students in the freshers’ week mostly are engrossed in all fun activities. They almost forget
that they are enrolled in a course. If you are overwhelmed with all the excitement, it is the
high time that you should remind yourself that you are enrolled in a course. Course induction
is the first place where you will meet your friends with whom you are going to spend the next
three years of your college course. Spending time with them and finding the common ground
to get along should be the priority you must take right now.
Faculty Activities:
Faculties in the initial days conduct activities for the students so that they can introduce each
other and can engage in a fruitful conversation. If you are the fresher and worried about
making new friends, you should attend such activities to get along with other collegemates of
the same faculty.
Push yourself out of comfort zone:
One needs to push oneself out of the comfort zone so that they can meet with new people and
get along with them in the process. One should invest their efforts and time in the process so
that they can collectively have the best experience.
Willingness to invite people:
If you are a fresher and you want the senior’s attention for learning or for mere reputation in
the college, you should hang in the common places where seniors are discussing about their
subjects or, they are planning to conduct some events. If you have the better idea of what they
are discussing, you should suggest few names of the good places. This is the instant
connection that people would start giving you attention.
Few places where freshers can go to make new friends:
Imagine that you are seeking friends in every place in the college and you are getting the one
with whom you have hardly shared any match. Instead of seeking friendship in the wrong
places, one should know where to find friends and where are the higher scopes of getting
friends just like you.
Campus events:
Campus event is the place where students should go and meet people from the different
background. Some of the campus events include music concert, TEDx, karaoke nights, and
sports games. Such campus events are the hub of meeting new people and initiating the
conversation randomly. But the challenge comes when we choose the wrong concert to invest
our time in. Hence, while choosing the concerts, one should be cautious about choosing the
proper campus events for them.
Being part of the campus organization:
Campus organization conducts different productive activities where students can take part.
Campus organizations are basically organized by the college clubs. Each reputed college has
clubs and there are events going on every now and then. Students should be part of such clubs
where they can effortlessly connect with the other students and professors.
Choosing your major wisely:
Friendship often blooms in the lab room or at the time of doing the study projects together.
The introverts or one who is simply focused on their studies should choose their major
wisely. Most of the time, such freshers get reluctant to attend any college events but they are
more focused on their subjects. They can spend hours in the lab room or doing the study
projects. These are the times for such introverts to get along with the other students and make
their friends.
What happens where you have no friends in the college:
Friends are needed in the three years of college life. One without friends can feel like left out
or alone. But this is normal to feel left out sometimes because you need some of your
personal space and time also.
But this is possible that you could feel hard times often because of no friends’ zone. To
alleviate such loneliness, the students should move forward and join the friends club to have a
conversation with. The best way to start befriending someone is to connect with the other
students on the college social media group. For the introverts and extroverts both, this is the
way students can communicate with each other and they will no longer feel alone in any next
event in the college.
Bonding over food:
Friends in college do not necessarily need to engage only in the common room conversation;
they can also hang out in the different eateries outside the college. Such initiation of the
conversation can be hard for the introverts because introverts often fear to ask someone out.
But such conversation related with food could be simple like asking someone to join with you
at the cafeteria or sharing coffee with someone. This is how the bonding can be initiated.
Often in the college campus, few students are seen sitting alone in the corner. The best way to
start friendship with someone is to ask them whether you can sit there with them. This way
the friendship can be initiated. It starts with the initiation stage and later on, you can decide
whether you want to take it to the next level or just drop it in the midway.
While approaching someone, one vital thing to notice is that someone already with the group
or less interested in making friendship should not be approached. If someone does not show
the same vibe of the friendship, it is better to stay alone and mind on your studies.
What if you do not make any friend in the first few days of the college:
There is a possibility that you would not be able to make any new connection in the first few
days of your college. There should not be any hastiness that you should break the ice within
first seven days of your college.
Many students have confessed that they have the rough times in the first year of the college.
They have been hardly making any new connections and they have continued on their own.
Such expectation to continue the college without friendship would be less horrendous if you do
not put such thought on this process.
You should accept this process of making new friendship as natural process and the
complications or the rough journey would seem less effective. One thing to remember here is
that freshers’ week should be the decisive factor for someone. If the friends are not made, the
new connections related to the society and the sports can be taken into consideration. The
connections do not need to always fall in place in the night clubs; connection can happen in
the library too.
On another perspective, why friendship is important:
Friendship is important because it pushes us doing the great things in our teens. Friendship in
the good sense always makes one a capable and confident person. Friendship always
encourages to change for the better. Friendship in the college as fresher is welcoming because
college is the whole new world to a student who has just passed his high school and getting
along could be difficult if the friendship is not around.
But while you are on your journey as a fresher in the college, you should focus more on the
quality friendship rather than the quantity. Such friends who believe in helping each other in
the critical times are asset. They build each other and never drag down. Friendship in a few
days of the college would be a learning session for the fresher and no one should get carried
away by the initial thrills and happiness it offers. College is not only about making friends
and have fun but also making good connection who helps in building our goals down the
years.
Thus, friendship is a stepping stone in the college days that needs attention but it should not
be considered as the sole object of the college life. The journey of friendship could be
difficult but one should not be disappointed if they get the wrong vibes from friends in their
initial journey. One should not change their basic nature while befriending others in the
college.
Such changes would only crush the innocence of the person. Hence, choosing friends
accordingly mental wavelength is necessary because it helps making college days more fun
loving. One should know the being fresher is very regular affair because everyone in their
lifetime has gone through this phase and no one is alone in the journey. The above tricks
would help one in getting along with other college friends and establish good friendship.
I hope these tricks would work in favor of you and you will connect with your best friends
in the early days of your college. If not, there is nothing to be worried because there are many
other things in the college to focus on other than friendship.
