We’re sharing some of our favorite posts from over the years! This post was originally published in September 2013.
We all want and need close friends. But how do we find them?
The good news is that friendships tend to develop fairly quickly and easily in college, since you’re all largely in the same life stage and have classes, activities, community bathrooms, and often all 24 hours of the day (Denny’s at 3 a.m., anyone?) to draw you together.
But even in college, developing true, authentic friendships takes some intentionality. Even the most extroverted among you cannot be good friends with all 45,000 students on campus (and still graduate in less than six years!). So how do you move from “I know your name” to “I know you and am known by you”?
1. Initiate.
Don’t wait for someone you’d like to get to know to reach out to you. And don’t listen to the excuses in your head that might keep you from initiating (e.g., they already seem like they have a lot…
