A new city, a new study programme: orientation week is thé moment to make new friends. Some of those friendships survive the tumultuous time after orientation. Like the one between Maaike Lamers and Marjon Eghuizen, who met during the 2014 medical biology orientation week.

Maaike: ‘A friend of mine did not attend her own orientation week, and she regretted that a lot. So she pushed me to go. I didn’t have many friends in high school, so I went for it. Marjon and I were in different orientation groups, but we got to know each other during the orientation weekend, which still existed at the time.’

Marjon: ‘At the orientation weekend, there was a beauty pageant and our groups made us compete. We both didn’t really want the attention, so we both jumped off the stage after one round.’

Maaike: ‘My orientation sister made contact with Marjon again in the bus on the way home. We started talking. After that, we also worked together in the lab.’

Marjon: ‘After orientation, it was nice to have somebody to walk through those enormous lecture halls with. Two-hundred people start the programme every year. Eventually, we were both asked to join the first-year committee. And it went on from there.’

Maaike: ‘You go through more and more together and after a while, you notice that someone becomes the first person you call when something happens.’

Marjon: ‘We never lived far apart. Five minutes, tops. And we were orientation mentors together at some point, with another friend. That was even more fun than our own orientation week.’

Maaike: ‘We also visited each other’s thuis-thuis (home-home, ed.) and made our parents sit together at our study association’s parent day.’

Marjon: ‘And when we go out, we are the die-hards.’

Maaike: ‘During an exam week, we went out once and didn’t tell anyone. We sent the rest of our group a selfie from the bar.’

Marjon: ‘”That one beer won’t make the difference”, we thought. Another nice thing about our friendship is that we don’t always have to entertain each other when we are together. Sometimes we can just be quiet.’

Maaike: ‘Yes. With you, I can do nothing for a while.’