I used to feel so alone in the city. All those gazillions of people and then me, on the outside. Because how do you meet a new person? I was very stumped by this for many years. And then I realized, you just say, “Hi.” They may ignore you. Or you may marry them. And that possibility is worth that one word.
– Augusten Burroughs, author of Running with Scissors
(Thanks again Starbucks for another post-worthy quote!)
Staring college this year – just like starting any new chapter of life – has been a huge adjustment. On that first warm September morning, as my parent’s car pulled out of the campus, I was met quite quickly with new freedom, new class structures and expectations, new living arrangements… yet all of that seemed to pale in comparison with the task of finding friends in the sea of new people waiting just outside my dorm-room door. I’m one of the lucky ones, my nervousness manifests itself in the form of chatter; it takes weeks of friendship before I feel comfortable enough to let a few moments of silence go by without saying something. This trait makes it easy for me to make friends, the nervousness almost becomes helpful(even though I do tend to say some fairly cheesy and stupid things) but I always wonder about other people. I have several high-school friends who have had difficulty getting out there and meeting new people because of anxiety and it just makes me wonder; does it really have to be so hard?
