All my life I have been told to cherish the friends I have now because once I go off to college everything will change.
I was told this by family, friends, upperclassmen, teachers, etc. The thought of losing the people closest to me was completely insane.
Why would my friends that I grew up with for 12+ years suddenly leave me once I got to college? What changed that summer from graduation to the first day of being a college student? Would it happen overnight or so gradually I don’t even realize it?
Although I have lost some of my high school friends, the people I am closest to are the people who I grew up with. I think that I was lucky enough to be able to grow up in a small town where I got to stay with my friends from K-12.
I am a sophomore in college now and my main three besties are the same three girls I would sit next to during pep assemblies. One goes to Ferris and the other two go to Central but that doesn’t mean our friendship is any weaker. We try and get together when everyone is home so we can all catch up and have fun. I have even become closer to other kids I went to high school with after we graduated.
Maybe it was because we were all aware that the odds were against our friendship lasting in college that made us more resilient to keeping our friendship intact. I don’t understand how people just stop being friends with the people they met in high school or before. Maybe from lack of communication or not having the time or just simply not caring enough to try.
Don’t get me wrong I still have great friends that I met at college. My college friends have a lot more things in common with me school wise because a lot of them are studying in the same profession or close to the same profession as me. In a way I am closer to them than I am my high school friends, but it is very different kind of friendship.
Friendship doesn’t end after getting your diploma. Just because everyone says you lose your friends after high school doesn’t mean it has to happen. We have technology for a reason. We can stay close to the people that are far away.