Let’s Talk Disabilities: With Isabella Smarro
By Isabella Smarro, Managing Editor
Last week I talked about how to find support systems at HVCC if you were struggling with school work. This time, let’s discuss how to make new friends. What’s the connection you may ask? Well for me, I lacked in both during this past 2020-2021 school year.
Making friends for lots of people is hard in general, it’s even harder since COVID started. You can’t see people that often and if you do, it’s on zoom. Connecting and making real friendships seems impossible, especially if you had none to start with. For me, that was my case.
People are nice to me but what I’ve realized during the past months is how no one makes an effort back. I could call or text them often trying to make plans and they would say yes (most of the time) but if I stayed silent for a while, I would never hear from them again.
Back in high school, this never really bothered me since I was busy in clubs and play rehearsals. I was with people constantly so when I was alone, it was okay since I was tired.
Now it’s completely different. I’m home alone almost every day without any physical involvement in activities.
I have a job but my co-workers are adults in their mid-50s, so there’s no way to make a lifelong friend to do typical 18-year-old things with.
I’m heavily involved in clubs but they’re all online, so I may have a great talk for about an hour but I don’t see them for the rest of the week until the next zoom meet.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to be able to even see people in some form but it doesn’t help with making real friends.
That’s when my mother introduced me to the website Meetup! This page contains hundreds of local groups that meet up weekly.
One that I joined was a Troy Autism group. Even though right now it’s on zoom, if I become heavily involved in the moment, later on when we meet in person I’ll feel more comfortable around the other members.
Other groups include hiking, creative writing, book clubs and even finding love. The other members in that specific group enjoy the same things you do, so making friends may be a little easier than before.
It also has a chat option. So if you make friends with someone but you don’t want to give away your phone number, you can chat with them right on the website.
The website also shares events happening in your town, both live and in Zoom.