I’m almost halfway through my Princeton journey, and that reality has forced me to take a lot of time to reflect. As enchanting, fun, and maturing as college can be, it can be difficult. Living in a new city, away from your family and hometown friends for 9+ months of the year, balancing academics with social life, extracurriculars, and rest, your time at college is often quite dizzying. However, I’ve found that the thing that has grounded me the most over the last couple of years is the warm and supportive friendships I’ve built.
When I first arrived at Princeton, making genuine friends seemed unfathomable. Everyone seemed to be in their own world, and amidst orientation events, the only way to socialize was to ask a revolving door of the same three questions. Where are you from? What are you studying? What residential college are you in? Surely, that could not be the most authentic way to make friends. Unbeknownst to me then, some of these conversations would lead to my strongest friendships on campus. The girl I met spontaneously at a first-year orientation brunch is now one of my closest friends. Despite our busy Princeton lives, we ensure we get weekly meals to catch up and share about one another’s weeks. We talk about classes, what’s stressing us out, what’s exciting us. We study together and have even made a tradition of taking First Day of Classes photos together so that we can see how far we’ve come at the end of each semester. I always look back with gratitude on the chaos of orientation because it brought some of my most fulfilling friendships.
I’ve also made friends with those who are physically closest to me. Living in Mathey College, I often see the same faces present in the dining hall or at our Residential College events. Sitting with people I saw all the time but hardly ever spoke to has led to fulfilling friendships. These are the people I go to after a long day or long week. We can talk about anything, listen to music, make art, and be safe spaces for each other. This makes the section of campus that I live in feel a little more like home.
I’ve also learned that some friends come much later than others. There’s a weird assumption people have when they first arrive on campus that if you don’t make good friends during your first couple weeks at college, you won’t make any at all. This assumption can be quite anxiety-inducing for introverts like me or people who just take longer to bond into friendships than others. I’m here to say that that assumption is not true. In fact, some of my closest friendships on campus did not come until my sophomore year. Although we came into each others’ lives later, my core friends and I have formed a tight-knit group for celebrating birthdays, attending each others’ extracurricular events, being shoulders to lean on, and even planning group vacations together. These friendships really affirm to me the importance of patience and the reality that, no matter how long it takes, you will find your people on this campus.
