One of the biggest apprehensions regarding University is the ability to make friends, be it classroom acquaintances, housemates or BFF’s. I can disclose that, from personal experience, this can be as simple as turning up on the first day of Uni or it can be an unfortunate eye-opening experience.

This being my final year at Keele, I was both extremely excited and anxious to come back to the bubble, one of the main reasons being getting to know the people I would find myself surrounded by. When I got to Keele it was, as usual, all a bit hectic to say the least. Eventually, I bumped into one of my flatmates in the kitchen and I was definitely feeling the pressure of that first impression, little did I know that a week from then we would be known as the ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ of the group. Yes it seems like a leap going from the first meeting to ‘newlyweds’ in a week, but if you ask my flatmates they will tell you that after the first week it was like we had known each other for months.

I am by no means preaching any sort of ‘love at first sight’ scenario when it comes to making new friends at Keele; everyone and every situation is different. This is my fourth year at Keele, and while I made some good friends and met my boyfriend in first year, my second and third year proved a bit of a struggle concerning meeting new people. This can definitely make your time at Keele feel uneasy, and can make you feel there is something wrong with you as a person. There isn’t. The joy about coming to Keele is there are friends out there for you to make, you just might have to plunge into the deep end to find them, whereas some people are lucky enough to merely dip their feet in.

It is important to socialise, even with the people you may not normally socialise with, and that is what’s great about coming to university, there are no cliques and no pressure, just ever-expanding friendship groups. I could never have guessed I’d be in such a diverse group this year, a hockey-nut, a weirdo, a shopaholic, a chav turned good-lad, a west-country boy, a bizarre sandwich maker, a Fifa crazy Irish boy, a ‘yes’ girl and a sharp dressing medic. I definitely could not have guessed that I, the loud scouser, would become BFF’s and serial spooning buddy to an at first quiet girl fromLeedswho is now as crazy as me. Evidently, what I am trying to get across is that if we freaks can all find friends at Keele, surely anyone can!

Georgina McGibbon

This article has been reproduced here by the Concourse Deputy-Editor Design. The original author is credited above.