Staff writer kicks off pal project

By: Daphne Becker

Hey pals, I would like to introduce you all to my brain child that I plan on starting in the new semester. It’s what I am calling The Friend Project. I know, the name needs some work.

I have noticed that a lot of people here stick with the same friends and the same groups from pre-K up without ever really venturing out of that little world.

While that is all great for some, seniors will soon be venturing to the outside world, making new friends and leaving the groups that we have spent these years forming.

I myself am one of those seniors, but I think it would be interesting to see if the people I would never consider to have anything in common with and I could possibly have some unseen connections deeper than the personas we portray at school.

My plan is that every week or every other week, depending on other people’s schedules, I’ll pick someone in the school at random and spend time just hanging out.

Prospects would be from every gender, social status, race, religion and sexual orientation. Basically I would do whatever they are known for, well, as long as it’s school appropriate. Basketball player, we might go shoot hoops. My limit is usually about the game of HORSE, but I will try.

Into music? I will look for music playing in town or listen to some of your favorite songs. I will immerse myself into your interests.

I’ll give you a little background into what inspired me to do this.

I was watching a Buzzfeed series (isn’t that where all great ideas come from?) where a guy is on a journey to find himself a girlfriend. In the particular video I was watching in the series, he found that on the dating website OkCupid that there actually is a rating of how likely you and another person would dislike each other.

Well, Zach, the man who does the series, found his “nemesis” or the woman who has the highest likelihood of disliking him and returning the “favor.” He decided to ask her on a date, and, by fate, she accepted.

The date has quite a rocky start, but by the end, they found they actually had some things in common and ended up at least friends.

I thought if they can find connections with someone who isn’t supposed to even like them, why can’t we look for connections with people who aren’t our nemesis’ on a strictly friendship-based level?

Fellow students, I urge you to help me by participating in my project. Send me ideas of activities, and because this doesn’t work unless people are actually willing to spend time, I would like if you could consider spending a short time together.

After each time, I will write about the experience for the Hi-Line. Don’t worry I won’t spend the whole time talking about how boring the person was or make fun of anyone. Just if my ideas on the person changed at all, and if I see us being friends in the future.

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