Written by Chloe O’Neill
Hi! My name is Chloe, and I started my Bachelor of Education at Charles Sturt’s Port campus in 2025. I lived on res for my first year, and now I live off campus. I have found good friends in lots of different places since moving here, and I want to share how I met a few of them.
One of my closest friends at uni now, Anna, and I met almost three years ago. We both came to the Charles Sturt Advantage (early offer) retreat after graduating in 2023. I turned up late as I often do and jumped on a random campus tour. I introduced myself to a couple of people and Anna and I instantly clicked. We spent the next 24 hours yapping, eating ice cream sandwiches in the carpark at 10pm and having fun.
The next year, while I took a gap year, Anna visited me and we went surfing at the beach and swimming in my local magic pools (in winter). Now, these last two years have been full of pancake sunrises and watching the Next Step – who, by the way, we saw live in April, which is one of my biggest flexes. I felt so much more confident moving to uni knowing I already had a good friend in the area, who made it feel like home.
Compared with the health degrees, there are not a lot of people studying Education at Port Mac. Despite this, I would estimate I know about 70-80% of the second years. That’s because I went to almost EVERY SINGLE O WEEK EVENT. I signed up for basically everything, and I said hi to basically everyone. Most of these people, I don’t really chat with regularly. But it is nice to walk across campus, or study at the library, and have so many familiar faces. And one of these friendships from O week was with someone in my course, Celeste, and that friendship has lasted. We make good study partners and are great at bouncing off of one another. At the moment we are on placement at the same school, which is really fun.
Once I moved here, I immediately (like, O week) joined the red frogs crew in serving food for res life students, where I met AJ. AJ and I are both short, sassy queens so of course we bonded quickly, and I truly feel like she’s a friend I can call up anytime if I need anything, and is always easy to share hugs with which I love having around.
The crew I’ve met from one of the uni clubs, Port Christian Students (PCS), meet every week for a great night with dinner, games etc. They are a whole bunch of fun and smiles, and now that I have moved off campus and was not automatically allocated a social sports team, I am in a team with crew from PCS and who AJ put together. We are not exactly a winning team, but we have a lot of fun on the court.
All in all – my advice would be to put yourself out there. Join a club that interests you (or start one if you have an idea!), say hi to anyone and everyone. Especially at the start of the Uni year when you first move, all the first years are in the same boat and everyone else also is waiting for someone to make the first move (not that there’s an expiry!). So be the person to invite someone to an event, or over for a movie. The worst they will do is say no, and the best situation, you have a lifelong friend. It has been worth it for me.
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