Hello everyone, I hope you are all having a wonderful summer. As school comes closer and closer I am getting more excited every second! I am going to be attending a new school after the treacherous secondary school application process. The past couple days I have been thinking about making friends and it came to me (as sad as it sounds) that I don’t know how. Now don’t get me wrong, I have tons of friends, but that was in middle school where my grade had 20 kids and you knew everyones names on the very first day of school. I am now heading into an ENTIRELY new environment and I would love tips to making friends in high school.
Say “Hello” and smile?
You don’t think about it; you just get to know someone and then you’re a friend. Don’t overanalyse it; it comes through doing projects, partner assignments, or school events.
I was the new kid in the eighth grade, so I understand how you feel. What I did was in each of my classes, I tried to compliment the person next to me on something, anything! I told a girl in my history class that I liked her hair, and she invited me to sit with her at lunch. We are still good friends, two and a half years later.
I also realized that the new kid is seen as a novelty the first day, and then people ignore him after that. I sort of expected people to be my friends and help me whenever I needed them, so I was sorely disappointed when no one reached out to me. It’s important that YOU take the initiative and be the one to strike up a conversation, because others won’t do them for you. Don’t be afraid or too prideful. It’s perfectly okay to ask for help and go out of your comfort zone. Yes, it’s hard adjusting and feeling left out and uncomfortable, but time goes on, and you’ll look back and feel glad that you were able to make great friends. Good luck with everything!
Thinking about it will just make you more anxious. Friendships just happen randomly and you don’t really know when or how to act.