When I imaged college, I thought that I’d have a lot of friends who I would always hang out with during all hours of the night. It was like that at first because it was nice outside and college was like a breath of fresh air. Being in a new environment and realizing for the first time that every opportunity from there on and out is like a bubble on a spring day, aimlessly floating and waiting to be popped, is a feeling of pure bliss. Then classes begin. It starts off relaxing, with a bit of reading here and there. Then it all comes at once with mid-terms and finals. At that point, the majority of our friends are classmates who we met along the way. They're who we study and laugh with during class. They make waking up at a time that we consider to be early bearable.
When the first semester ends and everyone goes home for the break, we forget about the college life for a while to focus on the families that we’ve missed so much. Give it about two days or so and the memories of campus come back up. In that very moment, it’s the friends who we think about that we miss the most. They're the ones who make us want to come back to college, despite the work. They're the ones who we grow an attachment to. They become a part of our schedule and going a day or two without seeing them is abnormal. They're the ones who people assume that you live with because you’re inseparable. I met one of those people, quite a few actually, who, in the short time that I've known them for, I’ve grown close to.
“Le Le, I just had a crazy realization that I really get mad at you a lot. I came in my room and I was looking for that pink Blistec that you gave me, but I couldn’t find it. Then I got tight and then I said to myself, 'Le Le must have it,' and I just got so mad at you. I literally said out loud, “I hate that she’s so much like my sister,” because you are! But it’s just this love-hate relationship that I can be mad at you, but no one else. And even when you annoy me and I just want space from you, I miss you and your company, and even if I’m mad, I need you with me and I know that sometimes I’m really hard on you, and it’s because I want what’s best for you. And when I get mad at you, I get really mad at you and it’s because you’re supposed to know me, and it’s okay for us to be mad at each other, not in a ‘I forgive you way,’ but in a ‘I need you way’ because you’re my sister and I literally can’t survive without you.”
Finding those few people make failing a test a whole lot funnier, late nights a whole lot shorter, and crazy schedules a lot less hectic. When you find those people, you want to hold on to them because they are what get you through the hardest moments of college. I’ve heard that the friends who you make in college are the friends who last a lifetime. Of course we’d want to keep them around forever, our friends in college are the closest relationships that we have to our families at home. Step one to succeeding in college is to make some good friends.
