People often say they find their best friends in college. I beg to differ. The people I’ve found in college are more than just my friends, they are family. I don’t mean those childhood friends who you take on vacation in the summer. Those buddies are great and all but they are just part of your family at home. What you need in college are people to take on the rolls of all the family members who are just too far away.

The person I have found that you need the most in college is a big brother. Someone to protect you from the creeps on the streets at night and advise you to drink a bottle of water when you’ve finished drinking your bottle of rum. This role is best filled by a guy best friend. They are the one you call when there is a spider in your room or it’s raining too hard and you want a ride to class. When some loser breaks your heart, your brothers are the ones who ask “where is he?” and say things like “let me beat him up”. Through four years of college many boys will come and go, the only ones we need to keep are our brothers who have our backs.

One of the hardest struggles of college is being away from your mom. Very quickly your roommate will become the next best thing. Screaming for mom doesn’t do you much good when you’re three hundred miles away. Screaming for your roommate however is a total game changer. They become the magician who can find anything you think you lost and the motivator you need at 11:20 because your paper is due at 11:59. Being sick and not being home can be agonizing. Roommates can get you your medicine and warm up your soup, the same way your mommy would if she was still under the same roof. Your roommate is the first person to learn all your weird quirks and bad habits. They know what’s best for you and as we’ve all been told, “mother knows best”. They tell you what you need to hear even if it is not the answer you want hear. The number one way your roommate becomes your mother is through the unconditional love the two of you share. You are stuck together no matter what, you support each other no matter what, and you will keep each other’s secrets no matter what.

You know that one cool cousin who says “if you ever go to jail you call me first, not your mother”? You need that at college and sometimes the distance would make it a little difficult for your biological family to come to the rescue. Everyone needs their go-to girls to help them out of a pickle. Even if they aren’t with you for every event that happens, they know every last detail and exactly what to do about it. Your cool cousin is the “been there, done that” queen who totally gets where you’re coming from no matter the scenario. At college, your besties somehow manage to fill that role. Although we’re all still young, in some ways your girls seem wiser. The best part of having a cousin is knowing you are never alone. For a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold, or the perfect lunch date my best friends are always right down the hall.

College is too hard to go through it alone. Making friends makes it better but what you ultimately need to make is a family.