College can be a fun time for everyone. It's where you will decide what you want to do for the rest of your life, where you may find your future spouse, and where you meet the friends you will be close with for the rest of your life. It may be a hard adjustment at first; leaving your high school friends can seem like the hardest thing in the world and can make you feel vulnerable and helpless. But once you find your solid college friend group, it is like you have been friends for years. You become so close in such a short amount of time that when you go home for break it feels like you're leaving your real family behind. And while you will always have your high school buddies, here are five reasons nothing compares to the friendships you have made at college.

1. You’re all living on your own for the first time.

Unless you’re living at home while attending college, odds are that you are either living in a dorm or an apartment with some friends. Leaving your parents for the first time is an adjustment that can be hard for some people. You are now thrown into a situation that feels like those overnight camps your parents had to drag you to when you were smaller. But now there is an entire year to get through, and you have no idea how you are going to make it to Thanksgiving break. Naturally, every other person is feeling the exact same way, so it becomes easy to connect with each other.

2. You now live with hundreds of other kids just like you.

One nice thing about living in the dorms in college is you really find out who your friends are. You can literally walk down the hall and knock on someone's door to see if they want to get food at 1 a.m. You have the chance to meet so many people and experience all different personalities that it becomes easy to find your solid friend group.

3. It’s those 2 a.m. talks that bring you closer together.

Though college is extremely fun and can be the best years of a person's life, it also comes with serious stress. There’s nothing like those 2 a.m. panic attacks where you realize how screwed you are on that five-page essay and second guessing every life decision that you have made up to that point. At times like these, it’s your college friends who prove to be your best friends. Calling up your old high school friends and trying to explain what is going on in your life is beyond difficult. Your college friends are the ones you can easily turn to and talk to for hours on end. Naturally, when you are sharing so much information with a new group of people it is easy to become extremely close with them. And while it is always nice to catch up with old high school friends, you slowly find yourself becoming more distant and having less to share with them.

4. They’re the ones holding your hair after a long night out.

It’s pretty obvious that with college comes other fun experiences that may be new to you. And the people you experience these new adventures with are your college friends. Sometimes those experiences can take an unfortunate turn. Whether it’s because you’ve had one too many drinks or just because you’ve had a long night, it’s your college friends who are there to help you through it.

5. They’re the ones helping you clean up the stupid messes you’ve managed to get yourself in.

The best thing about college is all the memories you end up making. It’s not the studying that you will remember in five years but the late-night Taco Bell runs with friends and the endless adventures you’ve created. It’s the crazy situations you manage to put yourself in and the friends who are there to help you through them that you remember the most. While you will always be close with your high school friends and will always attempt to stay in contact, the reality is that your college friends experience you as you grow and become the person you will hopefully be for the rest of your life.