As junior Abby Fickle puts it, “making new friends can be very scaring, but take my word for it, it’s so worth it.”

To encourage meeting new people, AHS has named their April theme of the month as ‘Meeting Someone New,’ or ‘Learning Something New.’ Past themes have been ‘Supporting Your Friends,’ the December theme, ‘Respect Everyone,’ the theme for October.

There are many ways so meet new people including sports, clubs, volunteering, extracurriculars, or even in the classroom.

Sophomore Saydey Bosmans joined the AHS field hockey last year to meet new people and has tried something new this year, by joining the AHS forensics team. Fickle has also been busy by being involved in Student Senate, Best Buddies, DECA, and the AHS girls swim and dive team, along with Lake Country Phoenix club swimming.

Both have made “numerous” friends during these experiences, friends that “will last a lifetime,” Bosmans said.

The principal’s cabinet chose the theme and is asking the study hall teachers to take two minutes, before the students are allowed to go to the library, to encourage students to talk amongst the people around them to meet someone new.

Fickle says the most important part about making friends is having them throughout your high school years, to “help you throughout your high school career when life gets hard.”

Overall, even though Bosmans says “it’s so scary, and takes me out of my comfort zone,” to make new friends or start up a conversation with someone that you don’t know, it’s “beyond worth it,” to have friends to lean on it tough times throughout high school and life in general.

Fickle’s advice to freshmen is to “reach out to other people because they are in the same boat that you are in, scared and wanting to make new friends.” She advises them to muster up the courage, and along with that, Bosmans encourages them to “expand their horizons of the variety of people that they are friends with.”

“And especially, don’t forget to be yourself when you are making friends, that’s the best way,” she said.