How to Make Friends at UVic

Whether you’re coming from your parents’ basement in our local municipality of Saanich, or the other side of the planet, you’re going to need to make some friends when you get to school.

In many cases, the friends that you make during your time in university will shape the experience that you have there, and potentially, the rest of your life.

Hanging out at the UVic Bookstore.

Have you ever heard someone complain about a place you really like and thought, “Wow, how could anyone possibly think that?” In my experience, it usually has to do with the people that they know there.

It doesn’t matter if you are on the sunset strip with a million dollars in your pocket, if you don’t have friends to share it with, you might as well throw it all in the ocean. Friends guide and inspire you to see the world in different ways, and university is a great place to make them.

So as I continue, let’s first establish that this is not a post about how to socially charm your way into being friends with the cool kids, it’s about finding the kind of people who you want to be friends with in the first place.

1. Positive people. Not to be confused with funny people, positive people have the ability to enhance any given circumstance. Life is what you make of it, and if the people around you think everything is awesome… then it probably is.

2. “Nice” people. These are going to be the first people to say hi to you in the hallways, the first ones to add you to a group on Facebook, and the first one to tell you if you have something stuck between your teeth. They are easily taken advantage of, though, so be respectful of their generosity.

3. Hard working people. As much as you want to think it’s not, school is a lot of work. Many of the relationships you develop there are going to be built around working with one another. As you will soon find out, someone who is late on group assignments is usually late on life assignments too. Find the person who gets their work done first and get friendly.

4. Different people. One of the best things you can do in your time at university is break out of your traditional friend circle. University is a melting pot where people from all walks of life come to learn cool stuff. Take a minute, and talk to the guy slack-lining in the quad to challenge your perspective of life.

5. Older people. Say what you want about your parents, but at least in a few ways, they’re smarter than you. The university world clumps people from all age groups into those first year classes so that you can get an idea of what it means to be a part of a community.

6. Other gendered people. However you choose to identify yourself, find someone else who fits a different category and hang out with them. I see so many bro and chick clusters that alienate any kind of casual interaction between the sexes. Society likes to dictate how and with whom we can hang out with—make an effort to break that trend and you might just find a friend.