Being a first year student at college can be confusing and scary. Coming into a new environment and trying to find your way and make friends while maintaining good grades isn’t easy. I got the opportunity to talk to a few new students at Douglas College and learn about how their first two weeks have been. Why did I get to meet with them? Because they all attended New Student Orientation and won tickets to see Drake in concert. Let’s take a moment to drool over the fact that they got the opportunity to see DRAKE just because they went to learn more about college life.

The new students won one ticket each and all four of them attended the concert together. Before the concert they went for dinner, which was when I got to meet them. Unfortunately, one of the students was unable to make it to dinner, but I learnt a lot from the three students who were able to attend.

All three of the students were spectacularly different from each other: Gilbert is in the Marketing program, he is interested in working in a start-up, the last concert he saw was Imagine Dragons, and he likes to sing the theme song from Titanic at karaoke; Alexis is in the Future Teachers program, she wants to be a French immersion teacher, the last concert she saw was Flume, and she likes to spend her spare time hanging out with friends; Michael is in the Creative Writing program, he wants to develop stories for video games, the last concert he saw was The Monkeys, and he hopes to start a vinyl records club. Although they all had such varying interests, they all seemed excited to be seeing Drake. They also had some shared experiences which seems to be a common theme among most first year students I have talked to. It was great to hear that they have all had a great time so far at the college!

The group talked about some of the struggles they have gone through: the course load, dealing with personal issues while staying on top of studying, preparing for dreaded mid-terms, and other things that the average student worries about. They also mentioned how they were having a great time making new friends. Making friends is one of the most important things a student can do to enjoy their time in post-secondary, and I was interested to find out how the students had made friends. Alexis and Michael have made most of their friends in classes, while Gilbert has taken a bold approach and has approached people during his breaks between classes. Alexis, Michael, and Gilbert have all had a good time making friends so far, and I think we could all use a few tips on how to make more friends. What did you do to make friends when you started college?