Dear Jethro,

I am a freshman. I thought I was going to make friends this year, but I have none. Every time I try to talk to someone, they just laugh at me and ignore me. How do I become cool and make friends? The world is a very lonely place… Help!

-Friendless Freshman

Dear Friendless Freshman,

Contrary to what stereotypical high schools portrayed in movies tell you, you don’t have to be “cool” to make friends. You can be just the way you are and find people who share your interests and want to be friends with you. The people that you’ve tried to talk to that laughed at you are just jerks, and you wouldn’t want to be friends with them anyway. Maybe you’ll find that the world isn’t such a lonely place after you’ve made friends following my tips:

1. Join clubs that interest you

This is one of the easiest ways to make friends. By joining these clubs, you meet people that share common interests with you, and you’ll already have topics to talk about. These clubs include but aren’t limited to: interest clubs, academic clubs, and sports teams.

2. Assert yourself

I know you already tried to do this and the results didn’t turn out how you wanted, but trust me, you will eventually find someone deserving of your time and friendship. While keeping to yourself might be the safe option, you have to keep putting yourself out there until you find people to be friends with. At a school as large as ours, this shouldn’t take too long.

While my list of advices isn’t that long, I hope it still proves useful to you. You may not have had luck making friends this year, but hopefully you make friends over the summer and next school year. Trust me, the world really isn’t such a lonely place. Enjoy your summer!

Sincerely,

Jethro