"Hi, my name is Emma. Will you be my friend? We can play."
Those sentences will be forever ingrained in my memory.
As a small child, it's easy to make friends. You consider everyone who appears to be younger than Dad and Mom, friend potential. Simply saying, "Hello." to someone could keep them in your life for years to come.
As an elementary aged child, making friends (initially) comes with very little risk. If you're (un)fortunate enough to go to a small school, your friends or non friends could be in your very class (the horror)! If you're (un)fortunate to go to a large school, you might only see your friends or non friends on the playground or the bus. Again, these friends could stay with you for life.
*Disclaimer: I do still talk to classmates from elementary school...but we aren't close anymore.*
Middle School and High School are harder. In my case, everyone in my class in High School had been in my class since Pre-k. If I wanted to make new friends, I had to look to older or younger classes (say what?!).
College is where it starts to get easier again...at least for your Freshman year. You're all in orientation groups together. You have dinner together every night with your "brother/sister" hall. Maybe you're fortunate to have familiar faces in a GenEd class that you know from Freshman Orientation. Hopefully 3 or 4 of tense friends from that first college year will stick with you to the end.
*I DID love my Orientation group! Honest!*
Then, say you transfer to a different college. You end up in a random apartment placement. You have NO idea who anyone is. Your roommate seems nice enough, but your suite mates? No thanks.
This happened to me. It was hard making friends that semester. Most of the Sophomores had made their college friends last year. So...the next best place to meet people...class. Yep. I'm a nerd and some of my best friends I have are because we took classes together.
Maybe you made friends at a Christmas party and someone duct taped your leg to someone else's leg. *Hey...it happens! I'll find the photo to prove it!* And she could be your best friend for years to come!
Now, all of these things are entirely possible. They're also some of the easier ways to make friends. Early childhood, Elementary, High School, and college are all perfectly acceptable places to make friends.
My big dilemma is HOW IN THE WORLD DO I MAKE FRIENDS NOW THAT I'M A REAL ADULT WITH A BIG KID JOB?!
That's what I'll be exploring throughout the next few weeks.
**Oh...and if you have some sure-fire way to make friends as a grown-up, pleeeassseee comment and let me know. Or Facebook/Tweet/IG me if that suits you better. I'll be putting feedback on here one day coming up too!**
Maybe you made friends at a Christmas party and someone duct taped your leg to someone else's leg. *Hey...it happens! I'll find the photo to prove it!* And she could be your best friend for years to come!
Now, all of these things are entirely possible. They're also some of the easier ways to make friends. Early childhood, Elementary, High School, and college are all perfectly acceptable places to make friends.
My big dilemma is HOW IN THE WORLD DO I MAKE FRIENDS NOW THAT I'M A REAL ADULT WITH A BIG KID JOB?!
That's what I'll be exploring throughout the next few weeks.
Stay tuned and Happy Monday!
No comments:
Post a Comment