After the first week, making it alone

Making friends at NYU is not as easy as Welcome Week led me to believe. Those first days at this university created what I found to be a false sense of camaraderie among the freshmen. They put us together, ran us around New York City to all of the tourist attractions, and built up this image of dorm life that came crashing down the moment classes start. Because I was a fresh-faced kid off the wagon from nowhere, I fell for it.

In the weeks leading up to my arrival at NYU, I had been reconsidering what I wanted out of my college experience and re-examining myself as a person.

Truthfully, I was chickening out. New York City is so wholly removed from anything I had ever experienced, and the students frightened me more than anything. Not because they are crazy liberal demon-worshipping miscreants waiting to brainwash me, like my grandmother swore up and down, but because they seemed to be so extremely passionate about what they wanted. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to acclimate to something so different.

Welcome Week gave me hope. By the end of it, I knew almost everyone's name on my floor, I knew whether they preferred vanilla or chocolate ice cream, and I knew that they also found these icebreakers slightly asinine as well.

But then it was over, and we were left to our own devices.

Needless to say, I found mine rather defective. In high school, many of us picked our friends based on how they dressed, what clubs they were part of and many other shallow points — not on substantial emotional ties. I have friends who attend colleges back in Virginia; they are forever regaling me with tales of pre-game tailgates, frat-house parties and general feelings of school spirit. At first, this made me jealous. As long as I attend NYU, I will never have those Kodak moments that many of my friends back home will have.

Then I realized that although these schools back in Virginia may have a more easily identifiable sense of community, they are missing a sense of individual identity.

Instead of having predetermined communities, we get to make our own. NYU offers its students the opportunity to find themselves and their real friends. I have had to actually try to make friends for the first time in my life, and the experience has been very rewarding. I have been introduced to new ideas, new cultures and new lifestyles. For the first time, I feel that I am close to people who really know me, who aren't just in my life because of physical proximity.

I've realized that my high school friendships were based on "icebreakers." I didn't really know these people until much later in our relationships, and by that point, I didn't really like any of them. I've realized I must try new methods of making friends, of connecting with complete strangers. This has been both exciting and terrifying. Especially since the people who want to be my friends now are mostly middle-aged truck drivers on Broadway. They blow me kisses, those darlings.

So, remember, we are all here for a reason, whether this was your dream school, or the closest thing to that Ivy League school you got rejected from. Everything in this city is transitory, so make the most of your time here. Build your own community, maybe even one involving fantasy football. Or just join the light saber guys in the park.

Taylor Horak is a contributing columnist.