Let me just start by saying that I love college. I love my school, my sorority, my major, and especially the friends I've made so far. On the other hand, I hated high school. I wasn't popular, I constantly lost friends, and I didn't like any of my classes. I think that this is an important reason that we should never try to replace our high school friends. In college we're free to be ourselves, while in high school, a large part of our personalities are muffled by rules or change as we grow older.

Everyone says that college is the time in which we find ourselves, and this is true for the most part. College is the time that we decide on careers, we join organizations that will remain a part of us forever, we meet our bridesmaids and groomsmen, we experience internships and externships, etc. However, I think high school is the time that truly shapes our personalities and college is the time when we learn how to be adults. In high school, I found my strong political views, I had my heart broken countless times and learned from those mistakes, I received some scholarships and lost others, I got accepted to the college of my dreams, etc. The people who were able to stay by my side through all of those ups and downs deserve to be a part of my life forever; I could never replace them.

I've truly been blessed to have known my best friend since my first day of high school and to still be able to call her my best friend as I enter my sophomore year of college. In the past five years, I've gone through lots of ups and downs, and I never would've blamed her if she wanted to bolt, but my best friend was there for me through all of it. There are some days when I'm a brat for no reason, days when my anxiety gets the best of me, days when I think I'm going to flunk out of school and my high school best friend is one of the few people who believes in me and doesn't get angry at me when I get out of control.

The difference between high school best friends and the best friends you make in college is one sees you make stupid mistakes and the other sees the version of you that has moved on from those mistakes and became a better person because of them. My friends in college met the version of me who's extra careful when falling for boys because my high school best friend was there to pick up the pieces of me that were broken when I was cheated on. You can never replace someone who helped shaped you and who taught you what being a true friend means; without someone like this, you wouldn't be able to make the right friends in college anyway.

All in all, I love all of my friends, no matter where they came from. All of them have added to my personality and helped make me a better person. However, no one understands me as well as the girl who met me when I wore skin-tight Hello Kitty T-shirts, animal ear hats, studded belts, and colored skinny jeans and still wanted to be my friend. She's seen me at my absolute worst and she'll be right next to me on some of the best days of my life. We should always be open to meet new people and make new friends, but we should never try to replace the people who came into our lives and never once made an attempt to leave.