Wellbeing Column: It all started with a queue

The beginning of a friendship is sometimes a matter of chance. As an exchange student in France, I met two people who later became close friends while standing in the registration line on our very first day at university. Our surnames start with letters that are close together in the alphabet, so we ended up in the same queue. That was the beginning of a friendship that has lasted ever since, even though we now live in different countries and have moved on from student life to new stages of life. 

Studying offers many opportunities to meet new people. In classes, you meet people who are interested in the same field. Student events and clubs bring people together outside of their studies. You find yourself standing in the lunch line every day. There are countless moments when you might meet someone new.

Since then, I have stood in many queues without making any new friends. So what made that moment in the lobby of a French university special?

Someone started a conversation. Someone suggested exchanging phone numbers. Someone proposed meeting up for the first time, and someone suggested the next get-together.

Looking back, it is easy to think that the whole friendship was simply a matter of chance. But it was not. Chance brought us into the same queue, but the friendship only began when we gave it a chance to grow. In everyday life, we constantly share the same spaces and queues with many other people. A real connection, however, only begins when someone is willing to take the first step. At the time, you never know where that step might lead. But it might just be the beginning of a new friendship.