Going to college was rough for me and my high school friends. The night before we all went to school, we spent it lying in bed crying and watching funny movies to try and cure our sadness and nervousness. The next day we had to move into a place we had never been before with a person who we had possibly never met before and make new friends. When I came home that night with red, puffy eyes my dad asked how it was, like I had just casually gone to dinner not left my best friends for what I thought was forever. I got (if possible) even more upset and shouted through my tears at him just the word "horrible" as loud as I could manage and ran up the stairs to my empty childhood bedroom.
It was a low point in my life to say the least.
I thought that was the end. I had never heard my parents talk about their high school friends. I hadn't heard anyone from older grades talking about coming home and keeping in touch with their high school friends. I was positive I would lose touch with the girls I had come to know as my best friends. My mom comforted me and told me I hadn't even met my best friend yet and I had so much to look forward to in college. Now, I know my mom was right, but at the time I was horrified and frankly, I was pissed. What did she mean I hadn't met my best friend yet? I had two best friends. I didn't need another. I liked the ones I had and was not about to leave them in the dust for some stranger. Nice try, Mom.
Turns out that horrible night wasn't the end. Yeah, it was rough the first couple weeks of school. I didn't know anyone and I was missing my friends, but we still talked every day. And I mean every day. We set up phone calls and Skype sessions. We would call each other while we were walking to class even if it was only for five minutes. When we came home for Christmas break, I cried. I had missed them more than I could have ever imagined. But, my friend's mom sat us down for dinner the first night we were all home and talked to us about school. She told us she would let us catch up because she was sure we had a lot to talk about since we were away from each other for so long. We had nothing new to share. We knew what was happening in each other's lives. It was almost comical. We were sitting around a dining room table looking at each other laughing like we always had.
Nothing had changed. Sure, I did meet my best friend in college. She is a blessing, and I don't know what I would be doing without her. All I'm saying is bless up for high school best friends. They have been through it all with me. Literally. They were there when I didn't have any friends in college those first two or three weeks. They called me on my birthday the second week of school and made sure I was having the best eighteenth even though the only person I really knew was my roommate. They tried their best to keep up with my crazy boy drama as the school year progressed. They would call me Sunday morning and we would talk about our weekends, crazy or not. We did homework together via Skype. We would have the camera on and not be saying anything.
Keep in touch with them. They are the real OGs.
