Losing touch with people is an unfortunate, but often unavoidable part of life. Childhood friends move away, high school friends go to different universities, acquaintances fall by the wayside. I feel like I have an unusually difficult time keeping in touch with people. I tend to focus on the people who are around me in the right here, right now all the while leaving emails un-read and phone calls un-returend. And it's not because I don't care or that I don't miss that person it's just hard for me to stay connected via technology.

All this being said, I feel like I've made a genuine effort to stay close to most of my high school friends though out my college years. Most people tend to drift apart from high school friends after a year or two into college. After the first year of college, you typically re-unite with the old high school squad and everyone swaps stories about their universities and all of the first-year shenanigans they got up to. For awhile it feels like nothing has changed except maybe some of the old high school drama doesn’t seem as important anymore. The friends you made in the previous year are great, but no one compares to the original squad. The BFFs that stuck with you in high school are still pretty important people in your life.

By the end of sophomore year, however, things have changed. I know that for me sophomore year was when I really found my niche at Trinity and started to form some super close friendships. The kind of friendships that are solidified over late night Whataburger runs, embarrassing moments at parties, and epic Spring Break adventures. Returning home to your high school friends at the end of this year is much more bitter sweet. You're leaving more close friends behind and returning to fewer friends at home. Fewer people come home for the summer than the year before, choosing instead to stay closer to their schools for summer internships or research. This is the summer where high school friends really start to drift a part.

Every holiday and summer break I can definitely feel the gap between me and my high school friends widening. For me it has happened gradually, but I know for some people they tend to lose touch with high school friends fairly soon after graduation. I made an effort to keep some of my closest friends from high school in my life, but I can definitely feel the distance as our lives take us in very different directions. One of the most disconcerting symptoms of drifting apart is when you realize that your college friends and your high school friends would most likely never be friends with each other.

Having this realization is what made me stop and think. Have I really changed that much that my old friends and my new friends seem like such different people. I still get along with most of my friends from high school despite the different directions our lives have taken, but as each summer passes I can feel the strain that time and distance has put on our friendships. How can the people who used to be such a huge part of your life suddenly become the people you see once or twice a year for a long weekend?

Going into my senior year I’m beginning to worry what will happen to me and my college friends once college is over. Will our friendships go the same way as our high school friendships did? Could my best friends, the same people who I’ve lived with for almost three years and who have become the most important people in my day-to-day college life, one day pale in comparison to the friends I make once I graduate? In a few years will we only see each other once or twice a year to reminisce on our crazy college years? And who knows maybe we'll stay close forever and maybe not. Either way I know that the friends I've had in high school and throughout college have had an lasting impact on who I am as a person. People change and sometimes that means growing apart, but the influence they've had on your life isn't diminished just because you might not talk or see each other every day like you used to.