You are not alone.

I was in your shoes. I was never good at making new friends. It took me four years in high school to make a solid group of friends because I moved at the end of middle school. I knew I couldn't wait four years this time around, because now I don't have my parents or friends from previous schools to hang out with. I spent a total of 9 weeks with no friends before I decided enough was enough. Disclaimer: I was a part of Summer Academy, so I started my freshman year before the majority of other freshmen.

Not everyone is good at talking to random people. My roommate asked me if I wanted to join her to go talk to random people that were hanging out around our dorm but my anxiety got the best of me.

My advice to any incoming freshman, talk to the people in your dorm! Most people don't know people either!

If you find that those people in your dorm aren't for you or you never went to hang out in the first place, then there are still options! Soon after you move to campus, classes will start. Your classmates are typically polite and if you follow the universal rule of having an unassigned assigned seat, you will sit next to the same person every day. Introduce yourself and make small talk. You can bond over summer break being over and invite them to have lunch or coffee.

If you realize that the small talk isn't becoming any more than just small talk, I have one more suggestion for you. Go to Gobblerfest!

Gobblerfest is like a club fair that happens three weeks into the fall semester. Every organization on campus and around the Blacksburg area has a booth. You are bound to find something that interests you. Don't just go for the free stuff. Sign up for clubs and actually go to the interest meeting a week later. You can sign up for something you know you like, like a club sport. Or, you can try something new like The Bigfoot Club, where they go on hikes looking for Bigfoot.

As long as you put in the effort, you are bound to find a group of people who have the same interest as you.

My final advice to you is to never give up. Finding the right group of people to surround yourself with at college takes time. There are around 30,000 students on campus. You are bound to find a group of Hokies to call family.