Vikram’s Viewpoint: Stepping Beyond Social Circles

By Opinion Editor Vikram Mahajan

When I walked into N8 for the first day of AP Environmental Science just a few months ago, I was filled with apprehension. Most of my friends who had signed up for APES had ended up in the other period, and as I looked around the classroom at a sea of mostly-unfamiliar faces, I figured I was in for a long year.

After a few days, we were allowed to choose our lab groups, and within just a few weeks, the people sitting around Table Six had gone from lab partners to good friends. We feasted on fine food (read: McDonald’s), exchanged brainrotted jokes (at least six or seven each period), and placed bets on our lab hypotheses — while also occasionally cramming together for the ever-looming threat of pop quizzes. My disappointment at being separated from my friends in sixth period soon dissipated, and I looked increasingly forward to class each day (test days excepted, of course). 

But this column isn’t just meant to be a love letter to my APES lab group. The biggest lesson I’ve learned from my time in APES thus far isn’t about biodiversity or environmental sustainability, important though those may be — rather, it’s the realization that it is truly never too late to form new friendships.

It’s a simple, self-evident lesson in theory, yet not always as easy to find in practice. Over the course of high school, we often find ourselves locked into familiar social circles that can become rigid routines. As these relationships become ironclad, we often feel a sense of social inertia set in and don’t bother to step out of those circles and explore friendships outside our comfort zone. By senior year, it’s tempting to wonder if forming new bonds in the homestretch of high school is feasible or worthwhile. 

In the Smoke Signal this year, I expected to spend most of my time working in the backroom or chatting with the friends I’d already made — what I didn’t foresee was engaging in singing competitions, matcha brewing, lore dropping, and movie watching with a much wider circle of editors who quickly went from acquaintances to friends. Similarly, I’d known all the members of my lab group from previous classes, but we hadn’t yet become friends, and I figured at first that if it hadn’t happened yet it was too late for it to happen now.

That was why I’d initially viewed my APES period as an unlucky error rather than as an opportunity to find a new one altogether. That attitude extends beyond just APES and into the rest of the class schedule and assigned seating chart. It’s typical and natural to want to end up with your friends, but when that attitude becomes all-consuming, the opportunity being provided to meet new people gets left on the table. Often, things can click — but that takes an effort that we’re often not willing to make unless we have to.

New friendships are always lying in wait, and even as senior year marks the end of high school, it can also represent the beginning of some bonds (such as the Smoke Signal period three backroom buddies). We must come out of our comfort zones; only from losing our insularity will we find new friendships.