Dear PEER,

Coming into Penn, I did not expect all of my friends to be Asian tbh.

I think that I can speak for a lot of freshmen when I say that there is a certain unnecessary pressure to make friends as soon as possible coming into college. I didn’t know where to start. During NSO, so many new faces just come and go; some stick and some pass with only the occasional greeting. It was tough finding a close group of friends that I could consistently hang out with. On the advice of a friend and former PEER alum, I stumbled onto the PEER website and decided to just go for it and submit an application. I am glad I did because I can say without a doubt that I have never met a group of people more welcoming than the people I met at PEER retreat. Suddenly, I was surrounded by people who shared similar life experiences and upbringings as me. It was a new kind of feeling. Through PEER, I was able to branch out and meet people in the greater API community that I most likely would not have, forge a relationship with someone who I could always lean on for help and spill my heart out to, and most importantly make fond memories of all the fun, wacky, and sentimental moments we’ve had together that I will cherish forever.