Creating a Home Away from Home

Starting your college career might be fun, but the transition may not be easy. Whether you are going to college away from home or commuting, it's likely that you'll make new friends in your classes and in just about any nook and cranny on campus. Once you've met a few people it's easy to cultivate friendships and basically create a home away from home. Take what you have in common (a class, on-campus job, major) and build on it.

Start by exchanging phone numbers or e-mail and keep in touch about assignments. Meet up in the student center for study sessions or go to information sessions about clubs and groups on campus. If you work at an on-campus job together, meet up during shifts, sign up for the same shifts or offer to cover each other's shifts. Put yourself out there and accept help when you need it.

Don't be shy, have lunch with friends after class or go for a cup of coffee. Take in a movie that you both want to see. Don't be afraid to talk about things outside of school. You might be both be away from home for the first time, adjusting to college life without parents and old friends. You might both be under pressure to maintain grades, keep scholarships or work part-time or full-time to pay for school.

Be sure to create a network of friends who share your major. Make those friendships strong and important to you. As time wears on, you will be in more major-dedicated classes. Professors will often assign group tasks and projects so you will spend a great deal of time with these classmates and will share responsibility for each other's grades. Having a strong relationship with them can solidify not only that you will be working with people you trust, but building friendships with people you will be able to trust in more personal situations. For example, there are two education majors who graduate together, having worked on many projects and tasks together, excelling constantly. After college, they call on each other frequently for favors, childcare and things like broken down car problems. They know, through their years of working together that they can definitely trust each other and count on each other. As you move out into the "real world," these relationships will be important.

Some of the best lifetime friends are made during your college years. There are many factors that foster these friendships and depending on how much time you end up spending around each other, you can create a family that may not be your family from home but can be your college family through those years and beyond.

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