By Nigel Abduh
Coming out of my comfort zone…
Before I started my college experience, I wasn’t nervous, but, I had no idea how the other students were going to be. At the time, the only thing I thought about was my education. After I graduated high school, I was ready to move on to a new environment and surround myself with positive and mature students.
Once I took that step, a large amount of students were open and welcoming. I first met the people in my program and half of them were hard to meet, my speculation is that they were shy but the other half were easy to talk to. For the students who are not in my program, it was harder because I didn’t know how their personalities were going to be. I wouldn’t say I was nervous, but I was prepared for any positive and negative people. As I met these people 100 % were positive!
Being myself…
As the fall semester went on, some people looked at me different. I thought they were probably haters, but I didn’t let that bother me. I would say to myself “if people aren’t going to like me, then I don’t need to talk to them, I just find people who are willing to accept me.” If somebody did come and told me they didn’t like me, I wouldn’t let it bother me, I would tell that person if you don’t like me then you don’t have to talk to me just keep moving and there won’t be any problems.
In the Middle…
One of the biggest ways that I’ve made new friends was when I was advertising for my radio show. I spread the word about the show to different people who I didn’t know and told them about the show. The people who were told about the show through my friends, they were friends with and introduce to those friends.
By the Spring semester of my freshman year, I started communicating more.
Spring 2017
Today, most of my friends are currently studying abroad, (a program where students take classes in other countries for a semester or for a year.) When I first found out that most of them were going to do that I was kind of shocked because I’ve felt that I’ve known them for a short amount of time and we were still becoming close. At the same time, I realized as a friend I have to support them and their dreams. Now it’s time to make new friends, and guess what, I already know how to do that!
Comments
Did it take you long to make friends? I would love to hear your friendship journey stories!
The DREAM News Blog 
This is an interesting journey. I wish you continued success in making meaningful friendships.
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