Saying Hello to Strangers #1 – Kelsey

Hello everyone, and welcome to my new passion blog, called “Saying Hello to Strangers”! Each week I will write about one person I have met during my time at Penn State thus far and the impact that they have had on my life. Going to college can feel like starting over, often with a fear of the unknown and concerns about making friends and deciding exactly who you want to be. But the truth is that we are all facing this uncertainty together, and this truth paradoxically brings us closer and can help us to make friends out of strangers.

I would like to begin at the beginning. The day after I moved into college, I was running late to meet up with my SHOtime Orientation Group because I did not know how to find them on this huge campus. I eventually found my group just in time to walk to the forum for our first presentation. The only person I recognized was Kelsey, but only because I had been in a snapchat group chat with her and many other Schreyer kids over the summer. So, naturally, I said hi to her and introduced myself. We stood there awkwardly for a moment not quite sure what to say to each other – what are you supposed to say to someone you “met” on the internet but have never actually talked to in person?

Anyways, we sat next to each other in the presentation and then began to get to know each other through different activities as the day went on. Throughout the SHOtime program, I formed a little group within my group consisting of Kelsey, a boy named Luke, and a girl named Laura, and the four of us did everything together. However, Kelsey and I were still sort of acquaintances after knowing each other for only two days. The night after orientation was over, however, I decided to be bold and I texted Kelsey to ask if she wanted to hang out with my roommate and I. She said yes and that she was going to bring a few people with her. A little bit nervously, my roommate and I met up outside with a boy she knows from her hometown and Kelsey, her roommate, and four other people who were total strangers to me. We all walked downtown to check out the scene, as freshmen do on their first Friday night, and then ultimately ended up back in my dorm room (again, as freshmen do). I wasn’t so sure about how I felt about this group of people at first. However, after the initial awkwardness smoothed out, we had a fun time chatting and listening to music together.

Today, Kelsey is one of my closest friends, and that odd group of strangers who hung out in my dorm room the first weekend make up most of my core friend group. We share meals together, study together, hang out on the weekends and go to football games together, and give each other support and advice all the time. I never would have thought that one little interaction with a girl I met on social media would have such an impact on my life. If I hadn’t been placed in the same SHOtime group as Kelsey and had never introduced myself to her, who knows how different my life and the strong friendships I have formed would be today. I often think about how crazy it is that one minuscule moment can have a ripple effect on so much of your life, affecting things you aren’t even aware of. That’s why I decided to write this passion blog; I would like to share with you all how something as simple as saying hello to a stranger can change you forever. I hope you enjoy it!