As the semester goes on and classes become more demanding, keeping up with your friends becomes a difficult task. Every time you have free time, they do not. The different scheduling of classes and work, along with the weight of homework assignments, interfere with planning. This becomes discouraging as you find yourself out of touch with your social life. As humans, we strive off of human connection, it is how we go about our everyday lives. To keep you and your friends on track, here are some tips on how to maintain an active friendship.

1. Add them to your calendar: If you have a planner, put them in it. If you have a day-to-day schedule, physically write down their name. By doing this, you are setting yourself a reminder to send a text, make a phone call or potentially make plans. As your brain is used to following a schedule and marking things off your calendar, implementing them into your to-do list will push for a higher chance of outreach. 

2. Meet up during X-period: X-period is the only guaranteed time that none of you have classes. There is a 50-minute window of freedom. This gives enough time to grab a coffee, eat a quick bite, catch up on campus, attend events around campus or student organization meetings. Taking advantage of any time given to you is key.

3. Visit them at work: If work schedules are not lining up where off days differentiate, pop in during one of their shifts. Walk up to the counter and let them take your order, ask to be seated in their section, have a quick chat while they are stalking shelves, make your presence known. Doing so can really give them the motivation to finish their shift and even potentially lead to spontaneous after-shift plans.

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4. Set aside one weekend out of every month: You do not have to communicate nor see someone everyday of the week to maintain a friendship. In fact, by having that time apart, there will be plenty to catch up on when you do finally have that sit down. With this, dedicate one weekend a month for a get-together. Plan a dinner, a game night, a gossip hour, an activity, something that will give you an excuse to be in each other’s company.

5. Have a study date: With homework being a common excuse of why friends are unable to meet up, arrange a study date. Let the reason you all can not come together, bring you together. Rent out a study room in Torreyson Library that allows for work and conversation. Grab food to-go and bring it back to a common area where you can feed the brain and attack homework. Hang up a hammock and form a study circle among the trees. There are multiple scenarios and flexible environments that can be beneficial for a group learning session.

Once fall break comes and goes, classes will become even more demanding than they are now. Remember these tips as the semester goes on in an effort to maintain your friendships.