I found a place to live with 3 other girls whom I had nothing in common with and didn't feel compelled to hang out with. There were some lonely weeks walking to and from my classes, waiting to meet and make new friends. I tried to be social and smile at all the strangers I met, but it wasn't until months after I moved there that I finally found my social niche, and found the friends I really connected with. (friends that are still some of my besties today)
I remember one, cold, snowy night at the very beginning, my roommate came home and convinced me to go to a church social FHE, where all the single college students from our church got together once a week to do some fun activity or another. She really had to twist my arm to go, as I had been to one before, and it didn't really knock my socks off.
I finally concluded that I could use some social interaction, so I went. I figured it wouldn't hurt to make some new acquaintances, and maybe even a new friend.
This particular night about 25 students were car-pooling to an ice-cream parlor for shakes. I jumped in a car with a bunch of girls and guys I didn't know very well. We chit chatted and exchanged names. We ordered ice-cream and talked about school. After we finished our ice-cream shakes I excused myself and went to the restroom.
When I came out several minutes later everyone was gone. I couldn't believe it. I had to walk about 2 miles back to my house in a downpour of snow! It was cold, dark, and pretty scary. I knew in my heart of hearts they didn't leave me on purpose. I found out later what happened was that nobody knew me well enough to care which car I came in, or which car I was driving home in, so they all just ignorantly left me there.
That experience made me kind of bitter at first, but led me to laugh about it later on, when I finally found wonderful friends who cared about me.
