Writing Part 2
Choose Your Task

So You Want New Friends? Put Your Phone Down

Have you ever scrolled through hundreds of profiles online and still felt completely alone? In my opinion, nothing beats meeting people face to face, and the best way to do that is by joining a club.

When you join a club, you already have something in common with everyone there before you even say a word. Whether it’s chess, drama, or photography, you instantly have something to talk about, which makes those first awkward conversations so much easier.

Team sports work in a similar way, and they add something extra: you have to trust each other to win. There’s nothing like celebrating a goal together to make you feel close to someone.

Meeting people online has its place too, especially if you are shy, but a friendship built entirely on messages can feel strangely empty.

So my advice is simple: find a club that interests you and just show up. The friendships might take a few weeks to build, but they will be worth every awkward first meeting.

Hi Jamie,

Great to hear from you — and what a nice problem to have!

Honestly, it depends on what you enjoy more: if you love arguing your point and thinking on your feet, go for debate club. If you’d rather get lost in a project and not worry about anyone judging your ideas out loud, art club is calmer and just as fun.

As for joining when you don’t know anyone, it’s less scary than it sounds. Everyone remembers being the new person, so most people are actually really welcoming. My advice is to just introduce yourself to whoever is sitting nearest and ask a simple question about what they’re working on.

Whichever one you choose, give it at least three weeks before deciding if it’s for you — the first meeting always feels the strangest!

Let me know what you decide,
Alex

A Game Worth Losing Sleep Over: Skyline Drifters

If you are looking for a game to play with friends, look no further than Skyline Drifters. It puts four players on a floating island that is slowly falling apart, and together you must solve puzzles to repair it before time runs out.

What makes the game special is that no single player can win alone. Each character has a different skill, so you constantly have to communicate and plan together, which makes every session feel like a genuine team effort.

The graphics are colorful without being childish, and the puzzles get cleverer the further you progress. My only complaint is that the tutorial explains too little at the start, so the first twenty minutes can feel confusing.

Still, once it clicks, it is genuinely hard to stop playing. I would recommend Skyline Drifters to any group of friends who enjoy thinking together rather than competing against each other.

I had never been so nervous in my life as I was that morning. My family had moved to a new town over the summer, and today was my first day at a school where I did not know a single person.

I stood outside the gates for almost five minutes before I found the courage to walk through them. Inside, hundreds of unfamiliar faces moved past me, all talking to friends they clearly already had. I felt completely invisible.

At lunchtime, I sat alone at the end of a long table, staring at my food rather than at anyone else. Then a girl I recognized from my science class dropped her tray down opposite me and simply said, “You looked like you needed some company.”

We talked for the rest of lunch about nothing important at all, and somehow that made everything easier. By the end of the day, I had exchanged numbers with three new people.

Looking back, I realize that the hardest part was never the new school itself. It was just walking through those gates.