We all have our best friends from high school. Our tight knit little group who have known each other since freshman year (and sometimes longer). We went through everything together, first boyfriends, all of that awful gossip and the drama that naturally comes with high school. Every summer you promised to keep in touch and you always did - of course it was so much easier when you could all drive. And when graduation hit, you spent graduation parties reminiscing about the past and talking about how great college life would be. Everyone laughs and hugs and promises to come home and get together during breaks. Months go by and you haven't really heard from everyone in a while. There will come a day when everyone is together again, and you will hardly be able to recognize the people you once called your best friends.
The shy one has blossomed into someone who talks way way too much while the super conservative girl has had her fair share of partying in the past week. Everyone looks a little taller, a little wider, and a whole lot more knowledgeable. Suddenly everyone has a crazy story to tell about that one time that they were way too drunk and did something stupid, or how they joined a frat and haven't picked up a textbook in months. Perhaps some friends can't even pass as your friend anymore. You end up looking around the room and have no idea how you all got here. So and so has changed their major so many times, you're not even sure if they have any direction in their life - and a few people haven't even been heard from since graduation.
Realizing that not everyone is the same can be a shock. It's hard to come home from college and realize that your tight knit group of friends isn't so tight knit anymore. You had this big fantasy that when you all came home and got together for dinner, it would be like old times. The reality of the situation is that you all went away for a year, and changed into people that you no longer really know. Spending time with each other will never be like it was in high school - you will never see each other in class or be paired up for a project together. Life will never be so simple again. And while all of your friends have started changing, you have changed too. None of you are the same, but this isn't a bad thing.
If you look around the room of your high school friends, you'll notice that not everything is so different. You are all still healthy (some of you more than others), you're all still laughing at those same stupid jokes. It's just a little different now. You all have more to talk about because you don't see each other every single day of the week. You are all more mature (some of you, anyway) and your friendship is going to have to mature with you. Sure, some of your friends may be borderline alcoholics and others tend to drop off the face of the Earth from time to time, but that's how life is going to be from now on. You're all doing your own thing, following your own dreams, and you're all busy with your own lives. Seeing each other once every few months is going to have to suffice from now on. Being so different now shouldn't be a sad thing, it should feel rewarding. You spent a good chunk of your life with each other and now you don't have to. Now that high school is over you have all had the space you needed to mature into adults - which might be terrifying, but coming together after a very long year away is just like coming home. You're all different and you don't all get along anymore, but you're all still family. Which kind of means you're stuck with them forever and they're going to accept you no matter how different you've become.
