Chris Collins (speaker) advises deliberate personal reinvention as a strategy to make friends and thrive in new environments. In this excerpt he describes changing how he dressed, what classes he took, and joining sports (track, baseball) and band as concrete steps to meet peers on their terms and avoid being socially marginalized.
So number four is reinvention. Like, completely reinvent yourself. I would completely reinvent myself. When I went in, how I dressed, what was important, what classes. Like, all of it. Right. Yeah. So don't adopt the dealership polo on day one. Like, maybe it's not soccer season, but I signed up for track and baseball. Like, I could play sports. I wasn't gonna be the last kid picked. Yeah. And I. I even joined band in one of them, which was a mistake, but it worked. Like, I didn't really want to learn how to read music, but I learned a little something. But I made friends with those kids, you know? Right. I was meeting them on their terms. Well, it's just another tool for them to.
