After being home from college for nearly two weeks, I've started to miss the friends I made during my first year. While on a video call with my friend who is still in Murfreesboro, she gave me the idea to write about the types of friends you meet in college, so that's exactly what I decided to do.
1. The very first friend you meet.
This can be anyone: your roommate, someone you met at orientation, etc. For me, we met at customs but weren't even really friends until we moved in. This is the friend who will be by your side through all of the awkward stuff: the first day of class, figuring out dorm life, eating gross cafeteria food. But they'll also be with you for the fun stuff like getting to know this new city you're living in and hanging out way after visiting hours in the dorms.
2. The friend in your school organization.
During my first semester, I rushed a business fraternity called Omega Delta Psi. This fraternity is for Recording Industry Majors at Middle Tennessee State University. I've met many people through this organization, but I've also met one of my best friends through it. Meeting people within an organization is one of the easiest ways to make friends. You end up spending most of your time with them. You're learning how to navigate your field and be professional, but also probably being young and stupid.
3. The friend you have feelings for before realizing it's better to just be friends.
This happened to me. It sucked for a while, but I will stick to the fact that we are better friends because of it. Yes, he found out I had feelings for him. Yes, we talked through it. Having feelings for him never felt right because I knew deep down that he was my best friend and we were much better off being just friends.
4. The upperclassmen friends who have a lot to teach you.
Most of my friends like this are people I met through Omega Delta Psi. These are people who are now juniors and seniors and have so much knowledge and life experience that they want to pass on to newer members / students. These are the people that I go to when I want to know what classes to take, what teachers to take, what minors to choose, where to live, etc.
5. The friendship you have with your roommate that doesn't extend outside of the room.
I loved my roommate, don't get me wrong, but we weren't really friends outside of our room. We were different majors, on different schedules, with friends living in different parts of campus. But, at the end of the day, we were still friends.
6. The friendship you don't form until the last few weeks of school.
Sometimes, you don't talk to people until the second month of your second semester. Even then, you don't actually get to know them and become friends with them until almost the end of the year. I didn't think this would happen, but it actually did and now this guy is one of my favorite people and we're actual, good friends.
7. The person you're friends with because they're from your hometown.
Going into college, I knew of one friend from home that was going to MTSU. Once I got there, I found out that a guy from my church graduated from my high school when I was a freshman, so that's how we became friends. I've also got a friend in Nashville that goes to Belmont. She moved away during high school, but we were able to reconnect during this first year of college.
8. The friend you have that you were scared of at first.
For me, this was the 2016-17 president of ODP. After actually getting to know her, she quickly became one of my favorite people.