Boredom gets to people quickly. This is especially so in an Internet community like ours, where we go through periods of profound interest and couldn’t-care-less boredom.

‘Why?’ may be the question many of you will be asking yourselves as you read this article. Granted, I can’t answer that question for you, but read on, and I will try to single out the causes of the ‘I’m so darn sick of HOL’ syndrome.

Firstly, I think that meeting the people that you interact with regularly is very important in maintaining that spark of interest in a relationship. Seeing that this is almost impossible in HOL, that means that in order to continue wanting to go on, we have to make the effort to interact and strike up new friendships.

Making friends is something like growing a rose plant. When it starts out, it’s usually thorny, and you’ll probably be asking yourself, ‘Why am I going through with this? There’s no beauty, no meaning.’ However, if you choose to persist and shower continuous care and love on the plant, beautiful roses will blossom and you’ll feel that your efforts haven’t come to naught.

Friendships don’t spring up overnight like mushrooms popping up after a thunderstorm. They require your constant attention and care to grow.

Now, I’m not here to teach you how to make new friends, so I’ll move on.

Secondly, I think that being open and outspoken in a community like ours is vital to meeting new people. We can’t see each other unlike in real life, where we can notice that a person is just standing around staring down at her toes, looking extremely shy and uncomfortable. In real life, we can do something about it and approach the person with a warm smile or a friendly word or two.

However, here, how is anyone going to notice you if you don’t speak up? You appear as letters on the computer screen like everyone else, so it’s going to almost impossible to spot someone who feels awkward.

Samantha Wanzo is a first year who has taken very nicely to the life of HOL, both in our Gryffindor Common Room and in the Great Hall boards.

“Of course (it is very friendly), how can it not be?” she says when asked about how she felt about the atmosphere in the Gryffindor Common Room. “There’s a whole board where guests can post and everyone is concerned about the feelings of others. I may not be (exemplary) at times, but I try to make my house proud.”

Speaking from personal experience, I can say for sure that the friends that you make in HOL will help you through whatever difficulties you may be facing, whether online or in real life.

They may not realize how they’ve helped, but help can come in many different forms. One of the easiest ways to help a friend is just by being there for them, talking to them and lending a listening ear when needed. These don’t take much effort, but they do go a long way.

So, you see. Being as friendly as the neighbourhood’s adorable Dalmation will get you somewhere. It makes you new friends, and as someone once told me before: Friends will get you to places in life. Without them, you’re as good as being on an island all alone in the Pacific ocean with no boat. You’ll survive, but you won’t get far.

Come on, we Gryffindors are great people. And, making friends in HOL is a sure-fire way of staying involved in discussions and such.

As Samantha so aptly put it, “People can’t help but love the Gryffies!”

And of course, who’d love the Gryffies more than us Gryffies ourselves?