Sept 2025 "Oddfellows Friendship Month" by Paula Rawlings
- Paula Rawlings
- Sep 15
- 2 min read
The Grand United Order of Oddfellows Friendly Society (G.U.O.O.F.S.—You gotta love that acronym!) was founded in the 1730s in England with a simple mission: help people make friends in response to loneliness among students. And honestly, it’s still relevant today. For introverts especially, putting ourselves into social situations isn’t easy. But small steps help—join a group hosted at Reedley College, strike up a conversation with the people next to you in class, or invite someone to come with you to tutoring at the Reading and Writing Center, the Math Center, or the Tutoring Center.
Making friends in college isn’t as easy as it was back in kindergarten. You can’t just turn to the stranger sweating and dry heaving next to you in public speaking class and ask, “Will you be my friend?” and skip out of the room holding hands. In college, it takes a little more—shall we say—je ne sais quoi. For one, your classmate’s dry heaving; for another, skipping is a lost art among adults that needs a major comeback.
The friendships you do make in college often last for years, if not a lifetime. For online students, though, the physical distance adds another obstacle to finding like-minded people.
That’s where Oddfellows Friendship Month comes in. Sure, naming a month after every cause under the sun has gotten out of hand, but this one is worth noticing because it encourages us to reconnect with old friends and build new ones, which is very important for mental health.
The idea of Oddfellows Friendship Month is to connect with others to combat loneliness. Old people get lonely. Try visiting a retirement home. Sit with the people who don’t receive visitors. Ask questions, hear their stories, and play checkers. Young people get lonely too. Message that kid you used to play football with in 11th grade. Find out if they ever bought that old Mustang they were saving up for.
For more on Oddfellows Friendship Month, visit
To learn more tips on starting conversations with strangers, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4_j1wPy-Ng
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