It's commonly said that you meet your best friends in college, and the years you spend at a university are some of the best of your life. While I'm sure both of those are true to some degree for some people, I think the friends I carried with me growing up, throughout middle and high school, are the ones that will remain the best of my life for the rest of my life.
I went to a multi-level school, with students ranging in age from sixth grade to twelfth grade. The friends I made in sixth grade- playing orchestral instruments and performing together, eating lunch every day in our school's butterfly garden- are the same friends I walked the stage with at our high school graduation last May.
My life hasn't been your conventional example of the typical American student. I played the violin for seven years at a school without sports, without a mascot, and even without gym class. The students at my school were a family, and we truly loved and supported one another like no other. With fewer than 2,000 students in total, it was easy to get to know most everyone in your class, and even some in classes above or below yours.
My best friends were (and are) the people I trust my life with. They were there for me in some of the hardest moments of my life. They have constantly supported me, even if they didn't agree with my actions, and I did the same for them. I'm able to be completely myself around my close-knit group, which is often a miracle to find in friends when you struggle with overthinking, overanalyzing and the fear of being judged.
We spent nearly every afternoon our junior and senior years together, going to lunch at our favorite lunch spots (Culver's or Chick-Fil-A and hardly anything else), the mall or even the library at the college where we dual-enrolled. If you were to scroll through my camera roll, you'd find hilarious photographs and videos I took from our time together for the sole purpose of remembering those lunch dates and "study" times (even though we often just rented study rooms in the library to watch movies like IT). In the moment, I'm sure my friends found it annoying, but every time I share those mementos with them, they're grateful for the memories I've been able to accumulate, oftentimes not even remembering various moments until I show them.
After graduating from high school, we vowed never to let distance get between our friendship, and so far, we haven't. With three of us at Florida State University, myself at UF, one of us at the University of North Florida, and the rest of us at various schools in Orlando, we still are able to get together for special occasions, or just when we feel we need to. We still go to breakfast at IHOP, or lunch at Chick-Fil-A. We still take trips to Disney Springs or Universal Studios. We still have sleepovers and an annual 'Secret Santa' party- the same tradition we've upheld since our first holiday as friends in 2011.
I know in my heart that the friends I've made the past eight years of my life are some that will be with me forever. Going to college doesn't mean dropping the people who helped you get there. Yes, I LOVE my college friends, but they are separate from my friends from home, and that's okay with me. Sure, we have our moments of disagreement. We have drama, but in the end, we would do anything for each other, and I couldn't be more grateful for the beautiful, funny, supportive, caring, one-in-a-million kind of friends I have.
