The first semester of college is always really rough. No matter where you go, if you are staying on campus it's most likely going to take a while to adjust to living on your own. For some, this transition takes longer than it might for others. But usually, by the end of the semester, the adjustment is complete and by the second week of winter break you can’t wait to go back to school. During this time, you may fall out of touch with a lot of people from high school. Now, the people who live down the street from you, go to school halfway across the country. The only time you remember that they are actually still alive is when you're scrolling through your Instagram feed and see they recently posted a picture.
It is so important to stay close with your best friends from high school because they make the college adjustment a bit more bearable. They are the one’s who know you from beginning to end. As you try to bond with your roommate and the people on your floor, you realize you are starting over. None of these people know anything about you. You can’t relate to these people the way you relate to your friends from home. As nice as it is to have the fresh start with these new people, it’s hard not being able to talk to someone about things in your life with such comfort. You don’t want to immediately scare away your roommate with your super crazy five-year obsession with Justin Bieber, but you can easily call your best friend from home and fangirl over his new album without worrying about if she’s still going to be friends with you the next day.
Keep these friendships strong. You want to have people to come home to, who you can go to McDonald’s with when there’s nothing better to do. Plus, by keeping in touch with your high school friends, it gives you the opportunity to visit other colleges and experience different things. It even leads to more new friends! Automatically, you are friends with your best friend’s roommate because they probably already know your whole life story.
Keep in touch with your high school best friends, or one of them at the very least. Talk to them every day. Tell them about the good grade you got on your chemistry test, or how your club sports team won their game this weekend. A text from my best friend at any time during this past semester made my whole day. I looked forward to our weekly FaceTimes, when we talked about the new boys in our lives, or how laid back one of our professors was. Luckily, long distance friendships are much easier than long distance relationships. You’ve already gone through so much with these people, why let distance get in the way of future experiences? Even two hours away, she’s still your person, the one you would take a bullet for.
