The pressure of finding friends in college is not just finding someone to walk to class with or someone to go to the dining hall with. While all that is important, most of us go into college with the same goal in mind: to find our bridesmaids.
And yes, that is a vague statement. Obviously, not everyone will need or want bridesmaids and this goal is not gender specific. Girls long for their non-biological sisters and boys yearn for a buddy to do all the reckless things that college men do.
However, after hearing for so many years from teachers and parents that high school friends don’t last, it seems as though your whole life has been a lie. Our expectations for hometown friends are lowered because college friends are supposed to be life changing.
So not only is it hard going into a new school away from the comfort of what you have always known, but now, you have to be on the lookout for someone that you would name your kids after.
The Moment I Knew
“Good things come when you least expect it.” One of the most common and probably dreadful pieces of advice you will ever hear in your life, right?
In all seriousness, if you are going to take any advice to heart, let it be that one.
Because one day, you are crying on the phone to your mom that you cannot find your people and the next day a sweet girl with a pink backpack and pink Stanley cup comes up to you in PSU 9. All of a sudden, the 40,000 person campus starts to feel more like home.
A conversation in the back of class turns into plans to go out the coming weekend. Then you make plans to grab dinner downtown and it becomes a routine to walk to class together.
Little by little a friendship is made before our eyes and that girl from PSU 9 becomes your roommate and you have plans to galavant around Europe together the second semester of junior year.
Hometown Tours
There is a comfort in knowing that the friendship still exists outside of the bubble that is Penn State.
Summer and school breaks are a perfect time to test that friendship. Plans to go shopping and get breakfast at a quaint coffee shop that gives the freedom of being friends in the real world.
Going to the beach in the summer or a day-trip to the city or hanging out in your childhood bedroom will probably solidify the friendship you did not know you needed.
Tag us @VALLEYmag on all social platforms with your college bestie!
