Family photos have never been a favorite of mine, they often bring memories of matching turtlenecks, forced smiles and in the
(Diaw family photograph from 2002 )
However, as with many other things, college has altered my opinion on family photos. It all started when my friends and I decided that we should take our own. We had grown more close than expected in the four months since school started, it seemed fitting to reflect this bond with a holiday photo. Not a Christmas card though because 44% of the friend group is Jewish, a "Neutral Ned Non-Denominational Winter Photograph". But we didn’t get there over night, lets start from the beginning (well sort of).
My current friend group is composed of eight people and myself, Rachel, Julia, Hannah, Stella, Misha, Hillel, Katz and Dan. How did we all meet? I like to think its fate but I’ll let you decide.
I technically met Rachel four years ago, in history, our Freshman year and Julia some time after that because she also went to my high school. I know you might be judging me for staying friends with people from home, but thats the thing, we weren't friends then. I was friendly with them, but I don’t think I had a real conversation with either of them until my Junior or Senior year.
But here's a pic of us from Senior prom, not gonna lie, its pretty cute.
The main point here is, its important to stay completely open when it comes to friendships in college. I know it can be tempting to sever all of your ties to the past and reinvent yourself in college.
But you never know what amazing people you might miss out on because of it, everyone wants to grow and change in college and you’ll find that it still happens, no matter what.
The next friend I met was Hillel, a few weeks before school started, during Pre-orientation. I did TWO (Tufts Wilderness Orientation) which I was very unsure about but ended up being one of the best experiences that I’ve had in college so far (I highly recommend it!!). It was very challenging in many ways but I had an amazing time and have remained very close to most of the people in my group.
Once everyone settled in, during orientation week, I realized that Julia, Rachel and Hillel all lived in the same dorm. When I would go to visit the two of them, we often ran into Hillel and his roommate Katz and we all became fast friends
pictured: Katz enjoying the lawn and beautiful fall weather that he LOVES
Julia and Rachel also introduced me to Hannah and Stella who also lived in their dorm across from the guys and eventually Misha, who lived downhill near me.
Through Hillel and Katz, our group found its final member, Dan and we wouldn’t be the same without him.
It has only been four months but in college years that is quite a while and we have tons of memories
All leading us here...
See, family photos aren’t all bad