I won’t lie to you; I had no idea what to expect going to college during the pandemic.
I was extremely nervous about making friends and being sociable. Without the close connections with friends, would I be to survive my first year in college?
I imagined that in attempts to keep campus COVID-safe, the chances to meet and form friendships would scarce. Back home, I had a close-knit group of friends, and I felt as if without them I would be too lonely to perform well in my classes. But, over the summer, I became really good friends with a girl I had met through the Tulane Freshman Instagram account. When we met in-person at check-in in August, it was like old friends reuniting. We even had coincidentally gotten the same hairstyle and were wearing the same shoes! I knew instantly that my first year wouldn’t be as bad as I had previously thought.
During the first week on campus, through the activities with the Wave Leaders as well as the first week activities Tulane had planned for us, I made even more friends, many of which ended up staying on the same floor as me. The friends I have now I feel like I’ve known my entire life. We remark on how easily all of us clicked all time. We hang out with each other almost every day, whether it be to study, to chill, or to go on off campus excursions.
Because of Tulane’s efforts to create an environment that fostered social interactions while still being COVID- safe, I was able to make friends that have made first year experience one thousand times better.
Destiny, First-Year Five 2021
