Coming to college, a lot worried me. I was two years out of high school, having forgotten most of my calculus and inorganic chemistry, and I was nervous about being thrown into an environment as rigorous as Duke. But I carried a quiet optimism that this would work itself out — that the studies would come with time. What worried me more than classes, was the possibility that I might not make friends. I don’t know if that’s a universal fear, but it certainly was mine.
Now, I’m lucky to have a good group of friends I can rely on — in crisis, in humor and in all that I need. But the transition from worry to comfort isn’t something I can trace to a single instant. It wasn’t a sudden switch from black to white; it was a gradient that deepened across the year.
A month ago, I had the opportunity to be an Orientation Leader (OL) for Project Play (the best experiential orientation program at Duke). A good number of my kids on the project asked me how I made friends during my first year. I didn’t have a perfect answer. I’d mention clubs and other activities, but never really had a good idea. Through orientation week, and even afterward, I kept turning the question over…