Fear of dining alone/stranger interaction

<p>that person could also be very busy and enjoy the solitude of a quiet lunch, some people do</p>

<p>that person could have many friends who are on very different schedules</p>

<p>and if you saw the same person sitting alone, all the time, why not sit down once with them and see how it goes</p>

<p>When I went to Brown this past summer, it was less awkward to eat alone in the main dining hall, where there were counters (like a bar sort) and 2 person tables. So if your dining hall has these availialbe, use them! It's not awkward when the seating was meant for being alone or being with 1 or 2 other people. But the other dining hall only had huge 10 person tables, which would be very awkward to sit at alone. So if I was in that situation, I'd either ask around my res hall if anyone was going to dinner and go with them, make plans with a friend from class, or, if none of those worked, ask a bunch of random people if I could sit with them. I did this a lot during the first weeks of hs (so long ago!) and no one laughed or said no, and generally high schoolers are meaner than college kids. Everyone else is probably new and trying to make friends just like you (well, there will be upperclassmen, but most of them probably won't be in the dining hall too much, esp. breakfast and lunch).</p>

<p>The worst advice I've seen on here is to get takeout or not eat. You're avoiding socialization if you do that, and it will only be harder and harder to make friends as the year goes on.</p>

<p>Would it be weird If I went to the football game alone on Saturday? My roommate isn't going and I don't know that many people yet, but I really wanna go</p>

<p>no. just do it. youll meet tooonns of people. and footballs games are great for meeting people because its easy to strike up conversation (just talk about the game), but you arent expected to have looong talks or fill awkward silences.</p>