Sometimes being the youngest in your friend group has its ups and downs. But when you start college at 17-years-old because your parents pushed you into the education system at an early age, you’re at a different stage in life. In college, you meet anyone and from anywhere around the world. In your friend groups, each of you are experiencing different things in your life, but for some reason, you’ve managed to create an unbreakable bond. No matter what age gap there is, you guys will be there for each other.

As the youngest member, you will experience things at a slower rate than the rest and you also won’t allow your age to hold you back from hanging with an older crowd. If you’re under 21 you can’t always spend time with your friends at the bar. Instead, you find other ways to spend your weekend nights even if they always aren't the most brilliant plans. Having a friend over 21 also comes with many advantages. You have someone to learn and get advice from. Another perk is that when you finally do turn 21, you have someone to tell you about the best nightlife.

Being the youngest doesn’t mean that you’re the weakest link or the most immature. Instead, it means that you’re mature and strong enough to hang out with a group of people older than you. Having older friends means that they do mature things like staying on top of their life or going out to events that you typically wouldn’t go to. With age comes experience and the more you spend time with older friends the more experience you can gain at an early age. Learning from your experiences will benefit you in the future and will help you make better decisions.

Aside from learning and experiencing unique events with your older friends, they generally help you to look and act more like an adult. While one of them is preparing to start a full-time job, you’ll be inspired and more motivated to push yourself during your academic studies. Older friends almost force you to catch up with them and do everything in your power to become successful together. Although living a real adult lifestyle seems scary, watching them makes the impossible seem possible and having someone to look up to and show you the ropes makes your transition a little bit easier.

At first, making older friends can sometimes be intimidating. You might consider yourself to be less experienced and less knowledgeable. But by considering yourselves to be unequal isn’t always the case. Age is just a number. The number doesn’t qualify one’s experience or personality. Even as young ones we can have an older soul, which makes it so much easier to get along with people older in age.