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Making New Friends at Uni

  • Writer: Amy Erkin
    Amy Erkin
  • Jan 3, 2020
  • 3 min read

Making friends is hard, let's be honest and it's even harder at University! Everyone always says how everyone is in the same boat and that making friends will be a breeze, but sometimes it isn't that simple.


It wasn't until I was scrolling through VICE articles, I stumbled across and article called "Making new friends in your 20's is hard - I know, I tried everything" by Keiron Passaway. He broke it down into 3 simple tests that could potentially guarantee a new friendship, so I decided that for a week I would follow these only 2 simple tests in hopes that I would make a new friend.


Test 1 - Approaching a Stranger


For those of you who don't know, I study at NTU which is a city campus so all of our buildings are spaced across the city of Nottingham. I thought about where the perfect place to test this theory was and I decided that outside the Newton building would be my best bet. As I approached the Newton steps, I plucked up the courage to say "hey" to a random stranger.


They looked at me with slight disgust but replied back with a "hi", after this I panicked and didn't know what to say other than "do you know where the Newton building is"...I was stood right outside the Newton building...I didn't give them any time to reply and simply raced up the Newton steps and drowned my failed attempt in a 7 item breakfast from the Newton Cafe.


So how effective was test one?


The Approach - Terrifying, I could literally feel my heart beat in my arse and my hands were so clammy that if I clapped I could make it rain. 2/10


The Experience - Mostly embarrassing but the breakfast made up for it. 5/10


Are We Friends? - Lol no. I hope to never run into them again. 0/10


Overall Result - A ballsy attempted at making friends, only designed for the strong hearted.


Test 2 - Taking up a hobby


So many moons ago, I used to play rugby - by this I mean I played 5 games until I broke my foot in a vicious varsity match of Reading vs Oxford Brooks. Joining societies are a prefect way of making new friends and having something to keep you occupied and active! From here I decided to join the NTU women's rugby team. After getting on the bus that was taking us to training, I'd already made a bit of small talk with some of the girls on the team, cracked a few jokes and planned an ocean night out!



So how effective was test 2?


The Approach - The approach wasn't too bad, I'd messaged the team's social sec on FB to get the details about training and thankfully all the girls on the bus were super friendly! 8/10


The Experience - 40 minutes into training and I was coughing my guts up and trying to disguise the biggest stitch as a minor cramp. 4/10


Are We Friends? - Yes! We've been on a couple social nights out and had a great time!


Overall Result - Great! I still attended training and working on building the strength back up in my foot before I play my first game with the team!


As crazy as it seems, by doing these 2 things purely for the purpose of content for this blog it lead me to continue doing them, I struck up a conversation with a stranger on my course and now we hang out a lot inside and outside on uni! I also joined the Drama society and I've met some really lovely people and made some great friends!

 
 
 

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