When my wife asked the freshman girls she has a small group with on Wednesday nights what they were hoping to get out of the small group, one after another, unanimously, they answered, “Friends.” The guys I’ve been getting to know so far this semester in my own small groups are hardly any different. They talk about friendship a bit differently and go about finding friends a little differently, but as I’ve met one-on-one with a handful of them I’ve heard all but one say something along the lines of, “I haven’t really found my community yet.” It kind of makes me wonder if we’re doing a good job of helping students relate to one another, but also draws up a number of other thoughts.

I guess this shouldn’t really come as a surprise. It takes time to build meaningful friendships. But these students’ search for friends is a higher…