Making Friends at a New School
By Whitney, age 16, New Jersey
First impressions are the most important to making friends. So dress nicely, always have confidence in yourself, make sure your head is up, and smile. At lunch talk to the people around you. Try to sit with new people every day. In your classes you can make new friends too, so each period every day talk to your classmates. Have a study partner or work in groups with your classmates because you can be close with them.
If you have the same lunch period with some of your classmates ask if you can sit with them. You can make new friends in sports too because you work as a team. In sports you have to communicate with your team to win, so you grow close to them and help each other out. Hang out with them. If you're an athlete like me it's easy because I play every season, and I have so many friends.
Only hang with friends who are nice and not mean to others because that sometimes gives you a bad rep. Always be yourself because if you have to impress people they were not your real friends anyway. Join book clubs at your library if you like reading because you can make friends there who like the books you like. If you have after school programs like cooking class you can really make friends there too because you have to work together to get the job done. Join the yearbook committee because you have to talk to students to get pictures for the yearbook, and you work as a team.
You think it's going to be hard to start over, but it's not. So don't be shy and never give up because it's going to take more than a day or a week. It takes progress and determination to make new friends.
