This school year I ask my NYU students to introduce themselves to someone they don’t know in class and chat for a few minutes to break the ice.

• It’s hard to get them to calm down and return to their seats and they are visibly happy.
• No matter what problems they walked in with, most smile at making a new friend (that’s 21 new friends for the semester).
• But the key thing is to have the courage to go first – step up and say hi because almost always the other person is so grateful you approached them.

Friendships are so important to our mental health and we’ve paid a price for hunkering down in the pandemic

• The number one thing those in hospice say they wished they had done is to spend more time with people they care about.

I’ve created monsters – they love to engage each other now which acts as a tremendous inspiration to me that I thought I would share with you.