How I made friends and built community at TMU
Friends are one of the most important parts of building memories of your university experience. As an international student, making friends can be more daunting considering you are starting a new life in a new country. It is important to remember that you are not alone in this and there are many other students that want to make new connections.
Meeting my first friends
I consider myself lucky to have two of my first friends at TMU remain as my closest friends today. I met my first friend, Noelle, at one of the events during Orientation Week and I met Anna in residence as we were in the same program and both international students from the Caribbean. During the first few weeks of school, you are going to meet a lot of new people but the key to maintaining friendships is to go out of your way to arrange times for you to hang out and get to know each other. Since Noelle would commute to TMU, we made sure to make time for us to hang out at least once a week when she was downtown. If we could not meet in person, we would always make the effort through text.
With Anna, it was easier as we both lived in residence meaning we could arrange to go for lunch and dinner together. Additionally, as we were in the same program, we would have shared experiences through the mandatory classes we had together. Even going into our fourth year, we love doing the same things we did when we first became friends such as exploring the city and doing random side quests around campus. It is really important to put time into friendships with people you click with!
Friendship needs effort (in a good way!)
As a student who lived in residence, it was easy to make friends as most of the people living there also did not know anyone before coming to TMU. When you are surrounded by other students for 24 hours of the day, you are bound to meet someone that you click with. While this is an experience that students living in residence are able to have, this is not the case for all students at TMU as many of them commute from other areas in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). When I moved out of residence, I realized that making friends has to be more intentional and more effort has to be made to maintain them.
Join TMU student groups and clubs
At TMU, there are over 600 student groups and course unions (external link) that relate to interest, hobbies, cultures and more. Student groups are different from how they were in my high school where people would formally sign up to be a part of a club. At TMU, it is very easy to attend any student group event. Most student groups post their events on Instagram and promote through social media. Once you have the date, time and location, everyone will gladly welcome you to the event and you have an opportunity to meet many different people. Coming from the Caribbean, I wanted to make other Caribbean friends that experienced a similar culture to me which is why I attend the TMU CASA (Caribbean Students’ Association) (external link) events. I am also a huge K-Pop fan so attending TMU K-Pop Club (external link) events was a great way for me to make friends and concert buddies! These are just a few examples of the many groups at TMU and you are sure to find one that aligns with your interests.
Finding friends through extracurricular activities
Course union of the year at the SASSH Gala
In university, academics and learning are definitely the priority but I believe that the other aspects of university need to balance your academics for you to do well. I knew I wanted to be friends with more people in my program so I ended up joining my course union as a third-year representative. This was an amazing opportunity to meet new people in my program, especially in outside years. For those that were in the years above me, they were able to give me advice and guidance while I was able to do the same for those in the years below me. One of my favourite parts of my routine was attending the weekly meetings which felt like laughing with friends more than it felt like a formal meeting. Being able to become friends with the team is what led us to win course union of the year at the Society of Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities (SASSH) (external link) gala and it goes to show how much connection with others can lead to bigger success in other parts of life.
Making friends in university can seem more intimidating considering the scale of classes and lack of strict routine in comparison to high school. It is always important to put yourself out there despite this. The truth is that some of your first friendships may not work out and you may realize they are not the right fit for you, but there is no harm in introducing yourself to someone and putting in effort because you never know if you will meet your friend for life!
