How To: Not Completely Ruin Your Life (#Wattys2015)

People Are....Interesting.

In this technological era where meeting people online is A-ok but if a stranger talks to you in the street you grab the mace, I understand it can be difficult meeting new people and making new friends. A lot of the friends you make tend to be colleagues or friends of a friend, this is perhaps why it's easier to chat online - you have people from all over the world at your fingertips.

So when Facebook was still relevant (ooh controversy) I remember looking at my profile one day, seeing 800 or so friends and saying "of these people I maybe have 50 acquaintances and 20 people I'd consider friends, at most." Facebook is a much more personal social media platform and Twitter fits my needs as an artist and quirky individual better. What was once the overwhelming 800 friends on Facebook soon turned into the completely manageable 25,000 followers (because that makes sense right?!) On social media it's not even that I've made a bunch of friends it's that I can relate to people, you can post a thought or memory and within the millions of users there's going to be thousands of people who agree or can at least share their opinion on whatever it is that you're talking about, but be aware the opinions aren't always welcomed. In this sense the internet can help you feel less alone and more accepted purely due to the vast amount of people using the platforms, but more on that later.

When I started college I was very vacant in the first month or so in terms of talking to people, not because I'm shy or intimidated but because I completely forgot how to meet new people. I had just been in high school for 5 years with the same bunch of people in my class and became so accustomed to everyone knowing who I was and conversation flowing that at college I just sat there waiting to be spoken to (the stubborn trait runs in the family). A piece of advice I'll give and will also take myself this year when I start a new college is to make as much of an effort as possible on the first day/week to get involved and show them who you are (unless the real you sucks in which case be someone else) it makes the whole friend thing super easy!

In the first chapter I mention about ditching the bitches and how keeping high school friends is difficult, however, this doesn't mean it's impossible - it just takes time. My best friend and I have been friends for 12 years now, we met on the first day of infant school when we were five years old. We would always meet up at break times to skip together (this sounds so camp, it wasn't. IT WAS COOL!!!).

Primary school had started and we were put in line to be taken to our new classes, she was in my class! 6 years of primary school playing dizzy dinosaur, British bulldog (which eventually got banned so we made the same game with a different name, we really lived on the edge) and of course tag (by far the most complex of all games). When we got into the last year of primary school we were determined to show our maturity and work in the games shed where we'd hand out footballs, stilts, space hoppers, etc. and take people's names down so if they didn't return them we could bring in the mafia...or something like that, my memory's a little vague, it liked to wander.

The most important part of the last year of primary school is filling out your high school request sheet where you write down which school is your first pick to attend and make up the rest so they really have no choice. Also on the forms you can request to be in the same form room as someone else, obviously me and Ellie wrote ours together matching them word for word. The day came where we received the letter from our high schools.

- We were both going to the same place? (check)

- We had the same form room? (nope)

- We were in the same community? (nope)

- We were in the same class? (nope)

We both quickly realised it was going to be difficult to stay as close as we currently were but my recklessly optimistic self reassured her that we'd make it work. We did! We saw each other everyday and would have a quick catch up or pull a stupid face just something that said "you see that asshole over there, she's my asshole....no, not literally you weirdo. Urgh."

I'd be lying if I said we weren't a little more distant but that was bound to happen, when the teacher told us we'd have to work in pairs I'd no longer look over to her and plus we both had friends in our own classes, I was well acquainted with hers so if they started thinking they'd become a close group I could shut that shit down immediately! I'm kidding.... Coincidentally when I was in year 10 (the penultimate year) my dad moved house, little did we know it was a 5 minute walk from Ellie and since that day every fortnight (every 2 weeks) she'd come round my house and we'd play video games, kill our Beyoncé singing (quite literally) or play pool.

If there is an equal amount of willingness to stay in contact a.k.a. you're both scared about not having anyone then you'll be fine. If you do find that you lose contact with someone it's probably because they couldn't handle your fierceness!

**Tip**

When you greet someone make sure you do something ridiculous and embarrassing early on, let them know what a mess of an individual they're dealing with quickly. This prevents awkwardness later on. During my first day of college we had to say introduce ourselves by saying "Hi I'm [insert name] and I like [insert favourite genre of music]. Naturally when it came to me I said "Hi I'm Beth....and I'm an alcoholic." *self high five*. If you're as unoriginal as me you can use it too - you're very welcome.