One of the most bittersweet aspects of college is having the opportunity to meet people who come from all over the country (or even the world). The sweet part of this is being able to make lasting diverse friendships with people who come from all different backgrounds and lifestyles. The more bitter aspect of these friendships is that usually that friend will move back to the area they initially came from, which could put a great strain on the friendship.

One of my very best friends I made in the first year of college just happened to be older than me, which meant she was closer to graduation. This concept was one we intended to ignore for the bulk of our time together—until the end of my sophomore year correlated with the end of her senior year. Our friendship only became stronger over the years which resulted in a harder time of letting go of what could be a lifelong friendship. It is easy to promise each other we will visit each other and keep in touch, but often, in reality, it is difficult and rare to remain as close through a long distance friendship. She is from upstate New York and I am from Western Pennsylvania, and even though the five-hour drive does not seem impossible for one of us to make, it will be very difficult to correlate schedules in a way to make the trip worth the time. I will still be in school for two more years and then go off to grad school, and she is beginning an internship which will soon lead to her starting her future desired career. Life is moving on and we have to float along with it. I do hope we can make the time to maintain a portion of our friendship, but I also hold on to the reality of the difficulty of this circumstance.

How College Best Friends are Different

When we make the endeavor to the independence of moving away from college we are like newborns in an unknown area. The friends we make in college are friends who make us feel at home in our hearts when we are physically away from our actual homes. We find comfort in people we have never needed before: the friends we live with here are our mothers who make sure we are eating, studying and sleeping, our fathers who make sure we do not fall into negative or abusive relationships, our brothers who protect us from any harm and our sisters who have our backs and cry with us when we need it. The friends we make in college are our new families: they are the people we eat dinner with every night and console when we are having various breakdowns. These are the friends we study with in the library all week and black out with every weekend, the ones who truly hold our hair when we are too drunk and make sure we make it to our beds okay. These friends become part of our experience throughout our college lives. College friends are different.

Saying Goodbye to My Best Friend

In a few days you will be leaving and going on your way to start a new life. Although I will miss you dearly, I am so proud of you for everything you accomplished. I hope you have a happy fulfilling life, you have a beautiful wedding someday, the family you always dreamed of, and you live happy until you’re over 90. I will miss watching movies on rainy nights and partying with strangers on fuzzy days. I will miss having you as a partner through the most difficult journey of finding myself and who I want to be. I have learned so much from you and from our friendship that I will take with me to the grave. I will always be a phone call away if you need me for the smallest or largest problems. No matter how far our distance, we will always be close at heart.