For many people, high school is the best four years of your life; for others, it's the four most hellish years you'll ever have. No matter which side of the spectrum you find yourself, you probably had at least one close friend or maybe lucky enough to have a whole squad by your side. You had study buddies, people to go to football games with, and people to make your eight hours a day, five days a week go by as quickly as possible.
SEE ALSO: Real Talk, High School Is Really The WORST 4 Years Of Your Life
College, on the other hand, is a completely different beast. You have your own schedules, your own clubs and organizations, and it's extremely unlikely that you have any class or overlap with your friends, especially if you're different majors. With such a hectic lifestyle that may start up, it's even more crucial than in high school to have a close friend, or a small group of close pals, to listen to you vent, motivate you to wake up and go to that early class, or bring you out to have fun after a long week.
In high school, many of your friends may have been circumstantial, same classes, same neighborhood, etc. In college, you deserve a best friend even more because you have to put in the work to make those close connections. Even with your own roommate you might not be the best of friends right away and have to work on developing that friendship. Creating a friendship that goes beyond making a few back and forth comments in class or doing one essay at the library one time takes a lot of work.
In high school, I had a group of eight friends who always hung out, did everything together, and still to this day frequently talk in our group chat despite being spread out across the country at our respective schools. In college, I didn't come in with a big group that I automatically could do everything with. I was fortunate enough to have my boyfriend and one of my best friends from high school at school with me, but it took over a full semester to develop my own friendships with my own people.
Now that I'm into my fourth semester in college, I realize how having close friends is even more important than it was in high school. It's very easy to find yourself staying in your room all day, doing work and watching Netflix, not realizing until hours in that you've had no other contact with the world today. For me, it wasn't until I joined my sorority and had weekly meetings with other women similar to me that I had the opportunity to develop those friendships and find my place.
Between calming you down and keeping you sane, grinding out at the library until the sun comes up, or dancing around your room blasting throwbacks, your college best friend(s) is to become your most prized possession. You'll find yourself smiling from the joy because you'll know you found your place in what can easily be a crazy, overwhelming world. If you have found your college best friend, hold them tight and don't let go, and if you're like me and taking longer to find that person, don't give up on them, they're out there.
