I Just Started a New School & Need to Make New Friends

The best part about freshman year is that you still have all of high school to figure out the person you are and the person you want to become — and which friends will help you along this mission.

It’s rough when you look around and suddenly feel like your friends have forgotten you exist. But, just think of it as growing pains — these rough times will only make it all the easier to go out and meet some new people.

Look at this as an opportunity to double your circle of friends. High school is too short anyway, why limit yourself to only one crowd so early in the game? Join a new club, try out for a spring sports team, or get really involved in the next event looking for volunteers. Did you miss a day of class? Rather than asking the same old crowd for notes, ask someone you don’t know that well. Go to every home basketball game and cheer your heart out, even if your team loses. Throw yourself into every pep rally or battle of the bands. Soon you’ll be having so much fun and meeting so many different people that you won’t even remember how you felt earlier in the year.

The most crucial part of making new friends, as I’m sure you know, is having confidence in yourself. If you keep telling yourself that your food allergy is driving your friends away, you’ll make it so. However, if you convince yourself that food allergies are certainly nothing to make or break a friendship over, that will be true, too.

Hang in there; every one of your good friends started out as a stranger, so don’t be nervous about hanging out with a new crowd every now and then — you never know who might be your next best friend.