College move-in week has this very specific social performance where everyone acts like they are totally fine and definitely not desperately hoping to find their people. The person who looks the most socially confident in your dorm hallway is also lying awake wondering if they are going to have friends by October.

There is coordinating, there is a group chat with seventeen messages, there is the where-do-you-want-to-go back and forth that takes longer than the actual hangout, there is someone suggesting something, someone saying they are down for whatever, and then somehow nothing happening.

It's not super fun when you realize you have not actually seen your best friend in three weeks even though you go to the same school. You text constantly. You like each other's posts. You exist in each other's periphery every single day. But actually sitting in the same place at the same time, having a real conversation? That somehow keeps not happening.