<p>I've heard that there is orientation for incoming freshmen to get used to the residence halls...what are they like? Do you play stupid warm-up games? Is everyone friendly? I'm pretty much a naturally shy person, so I was just wondering how easy it is to make friends at orientation. :)</p>
<p>well, in my experience, you had to pay and you stay at the campus for a couple of days and view campus/ residence halls/ signup for classes/ etc.</p>
<p>yeah, at mine we had a time to meet with our advisor, and we stayed in the dorms. Otherwise though, we were pretty much free to do whatever. There were stupid bonding games, but few if any were mandatory. People were pretty friendly - remember, most of them will be at least as nervous as you are, so you're all in the same boat.</p>
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Do you play stupid warm-up games? Is everyone friendly? I'm pretty much a naturally shy person, so I was just wondering how easy it is to make friends at orientation.
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The good news is its easy to make friends at orientation and during the start of school. If there EVER was a time to throw off a shell and get out and meet people, those are the times! Everyone is in the same boat; they know few people and want to make friends, they're worried about how they'll do in school, they're in a new and uncomfortable situation. Even if someone seems filled with confidence and completely at ease, odds are good that's just their game face and they have the same butterflies inside everyone else does. You're not going to make lifelong friends right off the bat; it takes time to get to know people and figure out who the good friends are going to be. I think its better to think of it as building a circle of acquaintances and from them there's going to be a winnowing to various levels of friendship. </p>
<p>Now don't take this as a harsh criticism, but let me add a comment on something else you said. First off, why do you term them "stupid" games? Maybe they're silly and juvenile, but maybe that's exactly the point!! Its a way to get people out of the familiar and comfortable, open to new experiences. Labeling something as "stupid" closes off doors to new experiences. You're not going to throw yourself into something "stupid", are you? And its this reluctance to play, to take chances, to risk a little laugh at your expense, that's going to cost you potential friends. Here you have people who've never met you before in their life, and the conclusion they're going to draw when you participate only with the greatest reluctance or refuse entirely isn't that you're shy or tentative; its that your aloof, unfriendly, and "too good" for them. This probably isn't the set of signals you want to send out.</p>
<p>And at 17 or 18 your personality is hardly cast in stone. You might be naturally shy, but you can work on changing the degree of shyness. Some popular entertainers, to give one extreme example, are actually shy people. Johnny Carson is said to be one, yet he hosted a daily TV show and was a comedian! I'm not saying you should become an entertainer, but if you continue the habits and thoughts of the past you're going to get the same results in the future you've gotten up to now. And that's a shame, because once you get to college you have a clean slate, a chance to remake yourself and your image, and you're free from the people in HS who've always seen you as a shy person and wouldn't recognize any change even if it happens right in front of them.</p>
<p>During orientation for me, it was alot of awkward warm-up games, and getting to know each other better. Well, to be honest, the first few was awkward, but after a few, it just gets sort of boring and everybody just puts up with it. We moved into our dorms the first day, met with the RA, went to alot of parties that the college sponsored etc. It wasn't bad, except for the few "welcome to the school" speeches that we had to sit through.</p>
<p>Despite all that I've said, orientation was a great way to meet new people. I definitely met alot of people, and although I have different friends now, I still see and talk to the people that I met.</p>
<p>Orientation is your first opportunity to check out your classmates of the opposite sex. Period. Other than that, its worthless.</p>
<p>They made us play some gay break the ice type of game. Everyone was looking at the leader like she was a moron the whole time. Hilarious.</p>
<p>mikemac, I really just meant it as a generalization. I'm too used to the high school views...we always do ice-breaker games on the first days of school, and they are just automatically labeled stupid. I don't have a lot against them.</p>