Everyone handles their transition of high school to college friendships differently. It can be so exciting to meet new people in college, that some people end up completely ditching their high school friends altogether. It can be tempting, and make you feel pretty cool, gaining all new friends in college. You feel like you finally created friendships on your own! Based on people that you found yourself! Not just based on the high school that your parents sent you to! However, I am an advocate for keeping around a couple of old pals from high school. Here are my top four reasons that you should keep in touch with those friends from the good ol' days:
1. They know your past
Friends from high school know your past. Most of my college friends do not know a whole lot about my back home life. They know the pieces that I tell them, but they will never totally comprehend who I was before coming to college, because they just were not there. This can be a good and a bad thing. It can be a good thing when you come to college wanting to reinvent yourself and start over. However, it comes in handy to have friends that know your past. When something rubs you the wrong way because of your past, or just when something reminds you of your home, it is nice to have someone to tell who will understand. When your parents call doing something annoying, and you tell your college friends, they do not totally understand the situation, because they have only met your parents a couple of times. High school friends know where you came from and how you became the person that you are today.
2. They can give you an objective look at your current life
Most likely, your high school friends are now in different colleges than you. This means that while you are out making new friends, so are they! Your lives are completely separate, and it can be so easy to slip into this new universe you have created. Sometimes we get caught up in the drama of day-to-day life, and when you feel upset or frustrated or just need some advice on a situation, it can be useful to look to your high school friends. They are completely detached from your situation, and can give you an objective, outsider's view on what is going on in your new life. They can tell you whether you are behaving rationally, when you need to stick up for yourself, and can sometimes empathize with you about similar seasons they are going through in their new lives.
3. Road trips!!
Your old friends are now spread out across the state, country and possibly world! By keeping in touch, you just got yourself a reason to go on weekend trips to see them and even have free lodging (assuming they let you sleep on their couch, of course). In the past year, I have made day trips to the beach and mountains, weekend trips to different states, and even one super fun trip to Europe to visit a pal studying abroad. It does not hurt to have long distance connections, my friends.
4. Holiday breaks
It would absolutely break my mom and dad's hearts if I did not go home every Christmas. However, I would have a mental breakdown if I spent an entire week in my childhood home, doing nothing but hanging out with my parents. Don't get me wrong, I love Hallmark marathons with my mom and going on walks with my dad, but there is a moment on about night two or three of break when I feel miserably stir-crazy and need to be around some people my own age. This is when all high school friends band together and leave their parents to go hang out together. Let's face it, we need each other in this dire time.
5. You love them
This is the least logical of my reasons. But come on, you spent at least four years of your life with these people. They're a part of you. And you love them.
