Friday, November 12, 2010
Blog #8
So a part of my blog is to show how the difficulty in making friends changes throughout the year. One thing I have definitely noticed is that people care a whole lot less about being nice and making friends. The first month of school, even the first two months of school, people were so incredibly friendly around campus and now you don't get that quite as often... Along with my trying to meet one new person every week, I also do something even simpler than that by smiling at as many people as I can as I walk through the campus. I know that it makes me a little bit happier in the mornings or after a long day of classes to see someone smiling at me, so I try to do that for others as well. In the beginning of the semester EVERYONE would smile back. Everyone was so happy and nice and friendly and willing to make everyone else feel comfortable. Lately, as I walk by a person and give them a little smile the number of smiles I get in return has dramatically decreased. I'm torn between two possible causes for this; either: 1. People aren't as worried about being friendly because they're already set with their own little group and don't need to constantly be thinking about making a good impression on other people, or 2. Things have gotten a lot more stressful as the semester progresses and people, especially those walking around campus at the end of the day, are so tired and off in their own little thinking worlds and not really paying attention to their surroundings. Either way you choose to think about this, it does give two logical explanations for why it is a little more difficult to make new friends in the middle or end of the year or semester than it is in the very beginning. This should also give a little hint to those who took meeting new people for granted earlier in the semester and should make them more aware of this the next time around. I also found a video that gives every one of you guys a little challenge relating to my blog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfvpHFGwVMc&feature=related [I know the video itself isn't the best of quality but what she is saying is what's really important anyway :) ] So this is something everyone can do, anytime, anywhere, and with this many students at CSULB and as many classes as we all have, there should really be no excuse not to be able to do this.
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Yeah, no I noticed that too. What I think it is though is a combination of the two reasons you gave above (but more inclining to the 'little groups' part). I don't know to me, It's intimidating to go up randomly to a person and start up a conversation. It's either my shy nature or just the fact that I'm scared of being turned down for a friend. It's funny actually how much I've really changed these past couple of months in regards to my outlook of people. When I entered college, I was really naive to think that everyone in this campus would be friendly and trustworthy and all that good stuff. I was openly friendly to everyone I had a chance to meet.
ReplyDeleteBut then I started closing myself up slowly. A lot had to do with my roommate who is an asshole so that slowed my progress down quite a bit. The people I was also meeting were mostly upper class men (seniors, juniors, super seniors) who had their own clique going on for them, so that REALLY intimidated me. It took a while for me to actually start moving of that shell I was in and in some ways I'm still in it right now.
Don't get me wrong though! I'm a much more open guy than I was in the beginning of the month; just more cautious to whom I place my trust on.
But yeah, great post Quiana.I might just do that and give a smile to someone everyone once a while because a smile is one of the best things you can give to another person.
(P.S. I apologize if I did not return a smile or a 'hello' before. It was either because I was extremely tired or I didn't have my glasses on that day making me blind as hell. haha)