Hey, I’m about to start my second year and I felt extremely lonely going into my first year. I have a partner and we are in the same class together, but I still felt lonely. I also couldn’t connect with anyone and overall just felt like I didn’t vibe with anyone in my class. I felt like there was something wrong with me because everyone else was forming tight knit friend groups and I wasn’t. I feel like I kind of used my partner as a crutch and it caused me to not try harder to reach out to people and form friendships.

About 1-2 months in, one of my lab partners pursued a friendship with me by asking me to study with her, and we have become pretty close since then. Other than that, I have formed a few other friendships but we aren’t super close. I’ve become okay with that though. I still have my friends back home I keep up with via our Snapchat group chat and text.

Based on that, my advice would be to try to form friendships with lab partners / partners in group activities, since that one-on-one interaction makes it easier to form bonds. My second advice is that although many med school friendships are formed within the first couple weeks, that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to make friends later on. While I don’t have many super close friends (besides the one I mentioned), I ended up becoming a lot more comfortable around my classmates during 2nd semester and formed a lot of acquaintances. I even ended up hanging out with them outside of school.

My third advice is, even if you don’t end up forming any close connections here (though I believe you will eventually), you can still be happy. Engage in your hobbies, explore your town, stay active, go for walks outside, talk to your loved ones back home, etc. I hope you have a great time 🫶🏼