I knew her, but she didn’t know me. Alexia had posted on the UVA Class of 2017 Facebook group over the summer with a link to her Youtube channel. Her cover of “Skinny Love” by Bon Iver was amazing. When I saw her in the dining hall that Tuesday afternoon, I instantly recognized her as if she were a celebrity. As I nervously approached her table, I noticed that there were six plates and six seats so I awkwardly turned around before I heard her ask if I wanted to sit with her. I asked about the six plates and her response was the reason we are friends. She told me that those six plates were merely a cover up; no one was sitting with her, but she didn’t want to look like she was eating alone so she brought six plates to her table and spread them out as if she had five other friends with her. Genius. We’ve been friends ever since.
Brandon lives on my hall and was in my “Unsolved Mysteries of the Universe” class. During lecture, a girl sitting beside him asked if he had a cloth she could use to clean her laptop screen. “No, sorry I’m just a dirty boy I guess” he said. His face grew red with embarrassment when he realized what he had said. He had just woken up so I suppose his mind wasn’t quite with it yet. I knew he was friend material at that point. After convincing him to join the rock climbing team with me, we became really close friends and will actually be rooming together next year.
Then there’s Katharine. I’ve never gotten so close with anyone in so short of a time. I actually met her through my twin brother, who is in architecture school with her. One of the first nights I hung out with her and my brother, we convinced people we were triplets and everyone fell for it. She is the wittiest and most convincing person I’ve ever met so of course she had no problem getting people to believe she was a Simms. We’ve basically been like triplets ever since. After I became friends with Katharine, I was no longer desperate to make more friends. I had found my “go to” friend that I wasn’t expecting to find so quickly. We go to the gym together, waste our efforts away by eating ice cream and watching “How I Met Your Mother” at 2 A.M., and talk about everything there is to talk about.
I wanted to dedicate this post in honor of Valentine’s Day to a few of the friends I’ve met during my first year of college because people are what matter most to me. Friends will get you through the trials and tribulations of college and are absolutely essential. Without friends and good memories, college is just a bunch of work. My advice to first generation college students is to treat making friends like a class during your first semester. When you first take a class or you first meet someone, there is an uneasy feeling. You don’t quite know how you will do in the class or how much friend potential someone has. However, you have to stick with the class and work hard at earning a good grade, just like you have to do with a friendship. After your first semester, try to have a solid base of friends because from then on out, you can really work within that base to strengthen those friendships. I will end with one last piece of advice: You don’t need to be intimidated about making a bunch of friends right from the beginning. There’s no rush. The best friendships are the ones that have a story behind them, like those from Alexia and her “invisible” friends, Brandon’s “dirtiness,” and Katharine’s determination to be our triplet.