Going to college is something that most people dream of very early on in their high school career. College means more freedom, more fun and most of all, more friends (you know, along with the academic mumbo-jumbo). As soon as the decorated caps are tossed in the air at graduation, many people stop talking to the people they used to see every day during school just to make a point of them being finished with the perils of high school forever, and then they venture off into the sunset to never look back. The unfortunate side of this seemingly glamorous decision is that when people leave home, they tend to leave the people they have known forever as well.

I have a theory. This theory is that when people leave high school, they forget about their friends and all of the relationships they have built with classmates, teachers, coaches, and teammates. This willingness to forget relationships as though they never happened is something that I may never understand. Imagine not speaking to your family ever again once you go off to grow up and live your own life. I know I could never do it, and I am sure most of you never could either. While many of the friends I have met here at college still talk to their hometown friends on occasion, they never seem to actually know or care what is going on in their lives. Maybe this is small-town-in-the-middle-of-nowhere me speaking here, but I think there is something wrong with that. My friends have become my family over the years and I cannot imagine a single day where I will not send them an update on my life in hopes to get the same from them.

My friends from back home are my best friends. I sound terribly cheesy right now, but these fine ladies are the ones who know every detail of my not-so-interesting life, and we talk every single day, regardless of whether or not the topics of conversation are dull or negative. The closeness of the five of us makes my college friends scratch their heads because almost none of them share a similar bond with their friends. I realize now that what I have with my best friends is rare, which is what makes it so special. I know that every single day, no matter what kind of day I am having, they are going to be there for me and they will give me advice that I know I will not follow. Even from such a terrible distance, I am able to call on them when I need them, and they know they can do the same to me. I also know that as soon as I return home, they will be there so we can start where we left off and act like no one ever left.