Megan LaFrance a second-year in environment, economy, development and sustainability poses with her roommates. The group made friends with another group of students across the street through exchanging messages with Post-It notes stuck to their windows. Credit: Courtesy of Megan LaFrance
Pressing his iPad to the window of his Worthington Building dorm room, Jonathan Chemaly wrote out a message to the room across the street in the Residence on Tenth — one letter at a time, in the largest font possible.
“Insta?” Chemaly, a second-year in computer science and engineering, wrote, asking them to add him on Instagram, which turned casual window messages into a friendship with his peers across the street.
Chemaly is one of many Ohio State students forced to discover creative ways to make friends during the pandemic.
He said he started communicating through his window after seeing photos of sticky-note messages in windows on social media. He took his own stack and started with a simple message: “Hi.”
Across the street, a suite of female students in the Residence on Tenth noticed and responded with a greeting of their own, Megan LaFrance, one of the recipients of the message and a second-year in environment, economy, development and sustainability, said.
The two groups of roommates started a light-hearted conversation this way.
“What’s up?” Chemaly wrote in Post-its, and he found a response, “Not much, u?”
“Hiding from ‘rona,” he said on his window.
This went back and forth a few times, but the two groups wanted to get to know each other better. So, one day when LaFrance and her suitemates noticed one of Chemaly’s roommates in the window, they waved until they caught his eye.
That night, the two groups exchanged information after Chemaly prompted the girls to follow him on Instagram via his iPad, LaFrance said. The six women lined up at the window to meet the four men across the street and made plans to meet in person and a group chat called “Window Buddies.”
Minding the pandemic, they safely met outside to slackline on the Oval or have dinner with each other throughout the fall semester, Chemaly said. The group even had a chance to bond over being among the first students to meet Ohio State’s Friendly Bush.
Chemaly said this friendship would not have been possible without COVID-19 pushing him to engineer a more creative way to meet other students.
“It definitely was like a catalyst,” he said. “It gave me that extra burst of energy, like, ‘Let’s do this, let’s put some effort out there.’”
Though Chemaly’s luck may have stemmed from the pandemic, not all students have been successful.
Lakin Beckett, a second-year in film studies and communication, turned to Ohio State’s Reddit page, r/OSU, in search of friends. Her post, titled “cool people i guess,” was met with encouraging responses, but unlike Chemaly, she was left without a new friend.
As a transfer student in her first semester at Ohio State, Beckett said she hoped to be able to connect with her peers, especially after difficulties processing her transfer and short in-person conversations.
Beckett said she decided to post on Reddit after seeing similar posts. After typing her message to “get the right vibe,” Beckett said she submitted it to the forum, including the fact she identifies as gay as a way to communicate her social dispostion.
Beckett said she received seven comments on her post and was able to speak with kind and interesting people, but the conversations didn’t go far.
“I know it’s not just me. It’s more just like the way things are set up right now,” Beckett said. “It’s not OSU’s fault, it’s just the world.”
Beckett said, despite being told in the messages that those contacting her were also feeling the same way she felt, they ultimately disappeared.
She attributes some of her struggles making friends with her inability to express herself through her clothes online, as well as others’ struggles expressing themselves through text. But she also said she wished there were more opportunities for transfer students to build relationships, especially during COVID-19.
Thankfully, Beckett said she has managed to meet people in person through her classes and in her residence hall.
“I feel more at peace with myself now,” Beckett said. “I know that I’m capable of making friends here because now I’ve made two in person. It was nice proof to myself that it’s possible.”
