I’m a second year student at university in Canada and socially, I feel like I’m not succeeding. Last year, I was pretty reserved and didn’t really form that many friends except for a few, but even this year, those friends have made their own tight social group and we haven’t interacted as much as last year. At this point I feel like it’s hard to make new friends, since everyone has already established their core friend group in first year. I joined a club this year to change that, but I haven’t had that much success. Making friends isn’t so easy for me as I’m pretty reserved and holding casual convo’s or introducing myself isn’t so easy.The worst part of this is I see so many people having the time of their lives here, which is what I had hoped (and continue to hope) my university experience would be like. Overall, I don’t want to be lonely for all of my uni life and I know my skills at making friends suck, so is there any potential advice out there?
Have you joined any clubs or looked into volunteering/ getting an on-campus job? A lot of the people I have become close with I’ve met at my work, and since you see each other multiple times a week it’s easier to build relationships. Clubs are also a great place to meet people because often you find people with similar interests, which can make it easier to open up. Clubs also meet on a regular schedule so there’s higher chances of getting to interact with people. Don’t beat yourself up about not yet finding a set group of people, there are most likely many people on your campus that are just like you and want to find their own group.
Even when I see acquintances from class or clubs, I just don’t say hi, or wave, or stop for a small chat. What’s wrong with me?