Will you be my friend?
Enjoy it, young BICers. You are in the glorious period where anyone and everyone is one question away from becoming your newest dining hall buddy.
Ok, maybe more than one question. However, there’s no denying that the beginning of the first year of college is a unique time when finding a new acquaintance is as easy as stepping outside your dorm room or speaking to the human who lives five feet from your bed.
It will take a little longer to find out if the random passerby will become your permanent partner-in-crime, but there is most certainly beauty in this era of endless encounters.
I met some of my best friends (including my current roommate) by following this simple formula:
1) Say hello.
2) Exchange life stories. (Thanks, band camp, for throwing me into Welcome Week on the Life Story Night.)
That’s the magic of freshman year. It won’t always be like this.
Flash forward three years, and you have your close group of friends (#squad). You know the layout of all of the buildings, where the best study spots are, and the Fifth Street fountain is finally finished (woohoo!). Life is good. Every once in a while, it gets even better. You meet a new friend, and it’s a cause for celebration.
Over Labor Day, like many of you, I shared a meal with my friends. At the meal, we went around the table and shared stories about any new friends we had made this year. We were excited. As seniors, running into people interested in investing the time required to make a new friend is not quite as common as it is in year one.
My freshman year, I could start a conversation by smiling at a stranger across the classroom. I tried that my junior year in a class of seven, and there was silence. So instead of chat, we just stared at each other…for an entire class period. The awkwardness was becoming too much for me. On the second day of class, I resorted to starting a conversation with the graceful interjection “So, we’ve made a lot of eye contact…My name is Kara.”
Oh, how things have changed!
Yet one thing hasn’t changed, the beauty of the BIC bond. Name drop that cool community, and you’ve just found friends in unlikely places. Our common experience can bring together seniors and freshman, science and humanities majors, experienced professors and newly-independent eighteen-year olds. No matter how awkward the real world gets, remember, you have a home in the BIC.
So, what’s your answer? Will you be my friend?
Kara Blomquist is senior BIC student majoring in linguistics.