"I've learned that your college friends become a kind of family, you eat together, you take naps together, fight, laugh, cry, and do absolutely nothing together until you can't remember how you ever lived your life without them in the first place." -- Author Unknown
One of the scariest things about going away to college is leaving your high school friends behind. When I came to college, I was so worried about being lonely and not having any friends at school. I didn’t know who I was going to talk to and couldn’t remember how to make friends because I had known most of my high school friends since middle school. Things changed when I started to keep my dorm room open and made awkward small talk with the girls on my floor. We started to spend all of our time causing trouble and participating in random shenanigans. We conquered late night every night, harassed our RA and all hibernated together when the snow came. We stayed up almost every night into the early morning getting to know each other and formed long-lasting friendships that have survived past our dorm room days. I started to feel at home at Grand Valley because of you all, and I couldn’t be more grateful.
I loved the friends I had made my freshman year, but I still felt like something was missing. It was suggested to me to join a sorority, and I instantly laughed at the thought. I thought that sorority girls were snotty, judgmental and ditzy, simply from the perception of them from movies and TV shows. I later came to realize that I couldn’t have been more wrong. I went through recruitment and fell in love with the cheesy but completely true concept of “finding my home.”
Through Greek life I became close with not only the girls from my chapter, but also girls from other chapters. Friendships started to grow between me and my sisters who loved me for exactly who I was and who were there for me always. Whether I’m crying on their shoulders after a crappy day, or looking for someone to dance with in our kitchen, I know I can always rely on these girls. They’re the ones who celebrate my successes with me and who are there to pick me up after my defeats. As time passed from my sophomore year on, we became a family. We went on Taco Bell runs in the early morning together, napped together, binge-watched shows together and spent all of our time together until it was simply weird not to be around each other.
My major and my classes have also given my friends and I a support system that I am so lucky to have. I love having people who I can text with about our confusion over an assignment, and being close with the people who I know will encourage me on the days that being a full-time student while also student-assisting becomes a little too overwhelming.
To those of you who have become my family, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for making me laugh until I cry, for all of the memories you’ve given me, for helping me get ready for our formals, for watching countless movies in our tiny jail cell-sized dorm rooms, for being there for me no matter what time it is, for making me forget about my homesickness and for everything else you’ve done to change my life.
You’ve made college so much fun and I couldn’t imagine it without all of you. I love you all so much and can’t wait to see how our friendships grow in the future.
