{"id":5771,"date":"2025-09-20T21:05:45","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T01:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/?p=5771"},"modified":"2025-09-20T21:05:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T01:05:45","slug":"elaina-meeting-new-people-and-cultivating-connections-in-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/2025\/09\/20\/elaina-meeting-new-people-and-cultivating-connections-in-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Elaina: Meeting New People and Cultivating Connections in College"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Elaina Fuzi<\/span><\/p>\n

When I first came to Boston University as a freshman, I knew no one. I had only attended a virtual orientation and had gone random with my roommate selection. It was incredibly daunting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, looking back as a junior, I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t know anyone because it forced me to go outside my comfort zone and focus on connecting with people. Thankfully, I had two great roommates who I got along with (I was placed in a triple in Rich Hall my freshman year) and tried to introduce myself to at least one person each class.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As an introvert and not the most outgoing person, that scared me a lot. But I found that people were much more willing to connect and exchange phone numbers than I previously thought because they were also new and wanted to make friends. I am still friends with some of the people I met on my first day of classes (one from COM101 and one from an Intro to Sociocultural Anthropology course). That following Saturday, I also met my current closest friend at BU when I went to my second COM Ambassador group meet-up. I then met that friend\u2019s roommate, and we\u2019ve all been close friends ever since (they are my current suitemates).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s another thing I discovered quickly. It is way easier to build a network of friends in college because each person you meet has the potential to introduce you to some of their friends as well and the cycle continues. Expanding your network of friends naturally slows down over the years, but I continue to make new friends every semester\u2014that’s mostly due to gathering a few seconds of courage to introduce myself. And not every person you meet must become a close friend. Most end up being what I call a \u201cclass friend,\u201d who I can sit next to and get notes from if I miss a class but don\u2019t end up hanging out outside of that. The good ones you really click will stay if you\u2019re willing to put in the work to keep in contact. This concept of networking doesn\u2019t go away and is also very applicable to a professional setting where connections can be the most powerful tool.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, you shouldn\u2019t feel pressured to have a friend in every class. There are plenty of classes I\u2019ve had where I didn\u2019t have a designated friend, or there have been instances where I haven\u2019t become friends with people until I’ve had one or several classes with them. For such a big university, you see familiar faces more than you\u2019d think in your classes, major and nonmajor, and even just walking around campus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You also shouldn\u2019t be afraid to go to things alone. Whether it\u2019s an event, club meeting, concert, going to a cafe to chill or do homework, or anything else, don\u2019t let having a lack of people to go with stop you from going and potentially having a great time. It\u2019s not a guarantee that you will have a good time, but it\u2019s a learning experience either way. Regret is sometimes stronger and lingers longer than fear.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n



<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Elaina Fuzi When I first came to Boston University as a freshman, I knew no one. I had only attended a virtual orientation and had gone random with my roommate selection. It was incredibly daunting.\u00a0 However, looking back as a junior, I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t know anyone because it forced me to go outside … Continue reading Elaina: Meeting New People and Cultivating Connections in College<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9413,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44632],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5771"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9413"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5772,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5771\/revisions\/5772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}