This kid was talking to me about making friends. No one say asks “when did you start making friends” so they can hear a date and time, that’s the answer I gave the student. I didn’t understand the seriousness of what he was talking about. However looking back he was most likely experiencing loneliness and a sense of hopelessness in that he will not be able to make friends, afterall man is a social creature.
This is my answer to him, pulling from a Carl Jung quote
“No matter how isolated you are and how lonely you feel, if you do your work truly and conscientiously, unknown friends will come and seek you” - Carl Jung
First year of university can be a challenging time, especially in engineering, where having the right friends can get you through it.
In the beginning it seems that you are alone. In reality, you have so many students with you. Everyone is feeling the uncertainty as well as the fear of first year, but everyone is trying to make friends. Some will stick around forever and some will be just for a semester, however it is important that you treasure these relationships because you can only make so many friends, and meet so many people. Consider the people you regularly see as a blessing, i.e the gift of knowing them and cherish it for as long as you can, because one day it will come to an end. If you treat people in this way you’ll never have to worry about having no friends.
On a practical note, making friends is an exponential gain. Every friend can introduce you to their friends and so on. Realistically you probably only need 5 real friends and if you need more friends, you can talk to their friends. An example is if your friend is talking to someone go in the middle and introduce yourself.
Huge life hack to get to people fast is joining a community, any clubs will suffice, this can be a headstart to your friends flywheel.
