Expanding My Social Circle

It was always a struggle for me when I was younger to make friends, but now between the friends I have at home and the new people I've met at university I'm finally happy with the people I choose to spend my time with. With such a wide variety of personalities, it's never boring when I choose to go out for the day with different people. By expanding my social circle I was able to meet new and interesting people that opened my eyes to different things. It wasn't until my first year in sixth form that I started to feel truly comfortable with the people I spent my time with, when I took a chance and started to try new things.

Now after moving to London that has become even more true, as I spend my days with people holding the same interests as me and that are as passionate and devoted to their work as I am. At the beginning of the year there were about 70 or 80 people on my course and after the able to meet the majority of them I became close to a somewhat large group that contains a number of different personalities, so our time never seems boring. Within that large group, I have also become extremely close to a few people who I believe have been the reason for my extreme boost in confidence and happiness over the last year. It is even one of these people that I care so much about that encouraged me to publish this blog so publicly. Although I am so happy having met these new people, I still feel just as close as ever to the people I love at home, having grown even closer to a number of them after having time away and growing as a person.

Having naturally gravitated towards befriending mainly boys in my years in sixth form, finding groups of girls at university that I bonded so well with seemed like quite a new experience. I had of course been friends with girls before, but after having been surrounded mainly by rowdy, rambunctious guys for two years, it was a strange but welcome change. I would call myself a rather girly person, but for some reason that never seem to be an issue when hanging out with just boys for the majority of my time. And even though the majority of my friendship group from home does consist of men, there are a couple of girls who, like me have seemed to worm their way in for the better.

In my first year at university I lived in large flat consisting of 28 bedrooms and lived with a mixture of boys and girls. But now for my second year I have secured a house with five of my girlfriends and I'm extremely excited to be able to have a purely feminine household. I'm not sure what it is that makes me think having only girls living in the house would make any difference, but the idea of not having to worry about getting dressed appropriately when I want to leave my room to go to the bathroom or get a drink in the middle of the night is extremely appealing.

Though there have been a few issues throughout the past few years regarding friendships, overall I finally feel completely happy and content with life and always feel supported. If anyone has had the same problems as me when they were younger when it comes to making friends, my main piece of advice, as cheesy as it sounds, is to truly just be yourself. Because it wasn't until I stopped caring about what people thought of me and wanting to impress or fake my way through a relationship until I became truly comfortable. I now know that fake friendships I had when I was younger when not just the other persons fault, but my own as I wasn't being honest about who I was.