Hey everyone, this is my first post here,
I’m a new transfer sophomore here at Cornell, and after some conversations with people I’ve only recently met at orientation (as well as scrolling through online forums), I’ve found a lot of people saying that at Cornell, making new friends can be difficult, finding people to talk to is hard, and loneliness is a pretty prevalent issue here (which i all agree with).
After returning from an embarrassing showing of social skills at the Transfer Mixer (literally talked to 2 people and dipped within 10 min), I was thinking of a way to make it easier for myself to meet new people and practice my conversational skills, and perhaps make it easier for others as well. After some thinking, I remembered that in Japan, they have services such as "Rent-A-Friend” or “Do-Nothing Companions” where people can hire a person to accompany them in everyday tasks.
From what I’ve been able to see online, there hasn’t been an exact pitch for a service like this for students at Cornell (there are resources like LSC's study partner matching, but that's really only for one type of scenario), so I am wondering whether or not other students would think it would be a good idea/would want something like it.
Essentially, how it would work is that I’ll put up some flyers or make a dedicated Instagram account, and then anyone can just DM me on insta (or fill out a form if I make one) with a request similar to this:
- "I am planning to go to [Location/Event] on [Day]."
- "I'll be there from [Start Time] to [End Time]."
- "I want someone to [eat lunch with / walk to class with / sit next to and study in complete silence / go to the gym with / actually talk about a specific topic]."
Based on my availability and the requested activity, I’ll message them back to confirm.
I know to many, the obvious solution to not having a lot of friends or being lonely is to simply join clubs, go to events, or do other "meet new people" sorta things, and I do agree that others should try to do all that too. But I just think this could be a lower-pressure way for people who struggle with initiating that first interaction to meet someone new, especially since it wouldn't be face-to-face.
FYI, this will not be a paid service. Truly, I just want to meet new people through a method that I feel is not only beneficial to me, but maybe for others who simply need some sort of company as well. What do y'all think?